Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó presented the Commander’s Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit to Peter Kössler, Member of the Board of Management for Production and Logistics of Audi AG, and former Chairman of the Board of Audi Hungaria, in Budapest on Thursday.

At the ceremony, Mr. Szijjártó stressed that the Hungarian economy and the people of Hungary had both profited from the decisions made by Peter Kössler during his time as head of the Audi plant in Győr.

“These years contributed significantly to enabling the sector to become the flagship of the Hungarian economy, and to Hungary becoming one of the continental bastions of the automotive industry. Audi generates a significant part of automotive industry performance, and it is important to Hungary that the professional, who has become part of Audi’s upper management and its most important decision-making body, comes from Győr”, he said.

“During the past 25 years, Audi and Hungary have written a joint success story; the company, which operates the world’s largest engine plant, manufactures some 2 million motors-a-year in Győr”, he stressed.

Peter Kössler expressed his thanks for the decoration, which he said belongs to the whose Audi Hungaria team and represents the company’s confidence-filled relationship with Hungary.

President of the Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency Róbert Ésik spoke about the fact that the sturdy foundations of the success of the automotive industry are primarily assured by the over 20-year presence of Audi’s production unit in Hungary, and the plant’s continuous development has contributed to increasing the performance of the Hungarian economy.

The Hungarian automotive industry’s number one company has invested over 8 billion euros in Hungary since 1993. Audi Hungaria employs over 11,500 people in Győr and indirectly provides a living for 30 thousand people in the region, he explained, adding: “Thanks to the leadership of Peter Kössler, the facility in Győr is one of the Group’s most modern plants”.

(MTI/Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade)