“Simultaneously with the rebooting of economies, the capacity-redistribution competition in the world has also begun, which Hungary will naturally also be entering; the government is looking forward to prolonged negotiations in Germany”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in a Facebook post from Stuttgart today. Germany took over the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union on Wednesday.

“We are working to convince as many corporations as possible that if they want to produce more efficiently, then it is worth choosing Hungary. Beginning today, the rate of the social contribution, which is a tax on employers, will be reduced by a further 2 percentage points. By doing so, we are making Hungary even more attractive from the perspective of foreign investment. Today, we will be telling the large international companies operating here all about this”, he stated.

“Germany is of course our most important European partner, and Baden-Wurttemberg in particular is our number two trade partner. The third largest volume of investment from Germany comes from here. Some 70 thousand Hungarian people back home are employed by enterprises from Baden-Wurttemberg. The names Mercedes, Bosch, ZF and SAP are obviously familiar to all of us”, he added.

“Many factories have closed, but it is not at all clear-cut that companies will be reopening every single one of these facilities”, the Minister stated. “Other options include moving production to existing plants in other countries. Accordingly, Hungary could be in with an excellent chance in this capacity-redistributions competition, in view of the fact that it is an attractive investment destination”, Mr. Szijjártó said.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade / MTI)