A successful paradigm shift is under way in the Hungarian economy, in the wake of which Hungary will be clearly among the winners of a new era in the world economy, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó told the Hungarian news agency MTI on Saturday.

“Thanks to Hungarian work force performing to the highest standards on an ongoing basis, Europe’s lowest taxes and the new scheme of grants, this year the highest volume of investments of all time has been brought to Hungary,” the Minister highlighted. He said, based on end-of-November data, investment decisions worth HUF 1,540 billion were made in favour of Hungary up to the end of November, and with this volume of investment, last year’s record for the whole year was broken already in November. In new jobs that came into being through the investment incentive system, last year gross monthly average salaries amounted to HUF 420,000, while based on the first 11 months of this year, this sum was HUF 457,000.

Mr Szijjártó said Hungary has become a stronghold of the electric vehicle industry as large Korean businesses dictating the pace of the transformation of the global automotive industry are bringing new factories to Hungary one after the other. He recalled that the world’s largest electric vehicle battery plant is being built in Hungary together with a chain of suppliers which clearly indicates that Hungary will be a winner in the new era of the world’s automotive industry. This is the first time after five years in the history of the Hungarian economy that South Korea is the number one investor in Hungary, rather than Germany. In the wake of this year’s investments, South Korean companies constitute the largest investor community, and so in 2019 the largest volume of investments in Hungary comes from South Korea. This clearly underlines the success of the policy of easterly opening, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade pointed out.

(MTI)