“Hungary’s economy grew by 5.2 percent in the first quarter, and this European champion level of growth confirms that politics that focuses on national interests also brings with it economic success”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó declared at the foundation stone laying ceremony of automated warehouse solutions manufacturer MIAS Hungary Ltd.’s capacity-expanding investment project in Gyöngyös.

The company is constructing an 8300 square metre new production hall with an investment of 5.4 billion forints (EUR 16.5 million) and 775 million forints (EUR 2.37 million) in government funding. Praising the performance of the Hungarian economy, Mr. Szijjártó highlighted: “Over the space of one year, 100 thousand new jobs have been created, investments have increased by 25.5. percent, export performance by 6.4 percent, and wages have increased by an average of 8.5 percent”.

“While Hungary is in 92nd place with relation to its population, it is ranked 34 in the world based on its export performance”, the Minister said, noting: “This is praise for every Hungarian”.

Mr. Szijjártó told the press that foreign investors, including the world’s most important corporations, have confidence in Hungary and in the Hungarian people. In addition to confidence, he said Hungary is also attractive to investors because their work and development is being helped by the lowest taxes in Europe, and particularly by Europe’s only single digit corporation tax.

The Minister also said that the world, including Europe, has entered a new economic era in which “what is truly important is no longer the number of jobs, but the level of technology and added value”.

“The Government’s goal is for Hungary to be as least as successful in this era as in the previous one”, he said, pointing out that based on the results so far, Hungary is among the winners of the new era. “Four out of five of the EU’s most rapidly growing economies are now Central European, and today it is this region that represents the engine of European competitiveness and growth”, he stressed, citing as an example the fact that last year trade flow between the four countries of the Visegrád Group and Germany exceeded German-French trade flow by 70 percent. “Germany is by far Hungary’s number one economic partner and is responsible for 29 percent of all foreign investment in Hungary”, he explained.

“Today, the 6000 German companies operating in Hungary provide jobs to over 300 thousand Hungarians, while last year trade flow between the two countries exceeded 54 billion euros, exceeding all previous records, and has already exceeded 10 billion euros during the first two months of this year”, he told the press. The German MIAS Group, which is a subsidiary of Jungheinrich AG, is the second largest enterprise within its sector in Europe and the third largest worldwide, and has been present in Gyöngyös for three decades”, Mr. Szijjártó said.

“The forklift trucks manufactured by the company are capable of lifting a ton of goods as high as 44 metres with pinpoint precision”, he said. “This investment also provides new momentum to the Hungarian machine industry: The sector, which employs 390 thousand people, grew by 6 percent in 2018 and its production value exceeded 15 trillion forints (EUR 45.9bn), while during the first quarter of this year it also ‘propped up’ economic growth with 10 percent expansion”, he stated.

Member of the Board of Jungheinrich AG Christian Erlach said the investment was a milestone in the company’s history. He stressed that in view of increasing demand for logistics stacking equipment the company has continuously increased its production capacity in recent years, and the continuation of this trend is what necessitated the investment in Gyöngyös, thanks to which the company will need more, highly trained staff. The investment project, which is expected to take a year to complete, will enable MIAS Hungary Ltd. to double is current capacity of 150-a-year, parallel to which 60 new workplaces will also be created in the Heves County town.

(MTI)