“We must adapt to the new international conditions in the interests of increasing the country’s competitiveness”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said at a business forum organised by the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Budapest on Friday.
In his speech at the event entitled Cooperation for a more competitive Hungary 2017, the Minister highlighted: “The new U.S. President is practicing a more patriotic than ever before economic policy, ‘a new situation has developed’, but we accept this and are adapting to enable us to remain competitive even under the new international conditions”.
“This is why we have reduced the level of corporate tax, as previously recommended by AmCham, to encourage more companies to invest in Hungary”, he explained.
Among the new conditions, Mr. Szijjártó mentioned Brexit, with relation to which he stressed the need for a fair agreement to enable relations between Great Britain and the EU, and between Great Britain and Hungary, to remain as good as possible. “The exit of Great Britain also means that the sovereigntist camp within the EU is losing its strongest member; the European Union is being left by a country which believes that a strong EU requires strong countries”, he said.
“What is most important now is that investors do not simply regard Hungary as an ideal production location, but also as an ideal location for research & development” the Minister stressed. “This is why, for instance, we have altered regulations to ensure that the level of applied technology is also taken into account when deciding on providing state funding for foreign investments”, he explained.
Mr. Szijjártó argued that the budget had been adopted early in the interests of predictability, in addition to which he highlighted steps designed to increase workforce mobility as a measure introduced in the interests of improve competitiveness. He also told those present that the Government is making every effort to make it easier for people to access the internet.
At a press conference following the event, the Foreign Minister told reporters that improving competitiveness requires regulations that favour enterprises, and accordingly the best thing for the Government to do is to ask enterprises what it can do to ensure even more investment in Hungary. “AmCham has previously made several recommendations that have already done much to improve the investment environment”, he pointed out.
In reply to a question concerning the Tesla affair, Mr. Szijjártó said the Ministry is in continuous contact with the company, but Tesla is currently monitoring where changes in market conditions are leading to a possible increase in demand for their products, and decisions on production capacity will only follow later.
In reply to a question on migration, the Foreign Minister explained that “while we are in government” nobody will be able to enter the country illegally, and accordingly the strict legal and infrastructural measures will remain in place. “There is only one task: to guarantee the safety of Hungary and the Hungarian people”, he highlighted.
In the statement AmCham issued with relation to the event, the organisation wrote: its delegation discussed current issues relating to Hungary’s competitiveness with Mr. Szijjártó, as well as the Chamber’s latest 17-point package of recommendations on several topics including, amongst others, an investor-friendly business environment, a competitive job market, research & development, innovation and digitalization.
AmCham Hungary currently has some 370 members, most of whom are Hungarian companies or Hungarian subsidiaries of large international corporations. The Chamber’s members are responsible for 35.3 percent of Hungary’s total exports and employ some 220 thousand people.
(MTI/Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade)
