“If someone goes out to the prospective site of the BMW factory, they can see with their own eyes that preparations are going ahead at full steam and everything is progressing according to the original schedule and the agreement concluded with BMW”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó told a reporter from Debrecen TV during a visit to the site of the new plant.

“BMW’s statement was clear and the preparations for the construction work also speaks for itself”, he stressed, adding: “As agreed upon, Debrecen has purchased all 400 hectares of land and the preparation work is currently underway”.

Mr. Szijjártó told reporters that when he visited the site there were 270 pieces of machinery working there; 300 truckloads of gravel are taken to the site every day, the company involved in the preparation work for the plant’s construction is spending 20 million forints-a-day on diesel oil, there is so much traffic on the site. “Never before has ground and construction work been performed on such a large, confluent area of land in Hungary”, he stressed.

He also stated that all of the planning-related public procurement proceedings required for the construction of public utilities and infrastructure have been successfully completed. The permitting procedures are currently underway, and planning has already begun with relation to preparations for some public utilities. “The international school will begin operations in September, in addition to which, at the expressed request of  BMW, preparations for a German school that conforms to Bavarian standards are also underway”, he stated.

“One must never fall for rumours; people must see for themselves what the true situation is”, the Minister said in reaction to pieces of news claiming BMW’s investment project in Debrecen has been suspended. BMW’s new plant, which is being realised with an investment exceeding one billion euros on an area the size of 560 football fields, will manufacture 150 thousand cars-a-year and create over a thousand new jobs.

The Hungarian Government is providing over 12.3 billion forints (EUR 37.6 million) in funding towards the investment. Following the signing of the funding agreement last October, the City of Debrecen undertook to perform the work required to make the area suitable for an industrial investment and present it to the investor within a year.

(MTI)