After last year’s record-breaking year, the number of investments which came to Hungary with the assistance of the Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency (HIPA) increased significantly also in the first six months of this year, and the total value of investments reached EUR 1.33 billion.
The State Secretary for Economic Diplomacy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade highlighted that, thanks to the increase in investments, we must now find an answer to the problem of the shortage of work force, while before 2010 problems were caused by mass unemployment.
Róbert Ésik, President of HIPA pointed out: in the first half of the year, 38 positive investment decisions were adopted with the assistance of the Agency which is a 27 per cent increase compared with the year before. In the wake of these decisions, 8,529 new jobs will be created in the next few years.
He said that six new investors chose the country as their target, and in 32 instances former investors decided to re-invest in Hungary. This means that the vast majority of businesses found Hungary a favourable venue, he pointed out.
The largest number of projects, 8, came from the United States. This was the first year that Germany was relegated to second place with 7 investment projects, the President of HIPA stated. As regards the distribution of sectors, the vehicle industry continues to dominate: 15 of the 38 projects will be implemented in this sector, and it is also in first place as regards the number of jobs and the size of the capital invested.
The President of HIPA highlighted: it is an important strategic direction that, as regards the size of the capital invested, the food industry came second in the rankings. He said: it is imperative to increase the level of processing in the products exported to the fullest possible degree.
Prospects are also good for the second half of the year. They are negotiating with 169 businesses, and by virtue of these investments, working capital worth almost EUR 5 billion may come to Hungary, he said.
Mr Ésik said in answer to a question that HIPA is the agency in charge of the system of grants that are awarded on the basis of individual government decisions, with an annual investment allocation of HUF 10 to 13 billion. There were 25 projects out of the 38 in the fist six months of the year which were awarded grants on the basis of individual government decisions, and the average grant rate was 16 per cent, he said.
The President of HIPA also made mention of another responsibility of the agency which serves to promote the role of Hungarian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as suppliers. He pointed out that they recommended 1,408 Hungarian SMEs in response to the enquiries of 31 large businesses in the first half of the year.
Six Hungarian businesses found financial and professional investors abroad with the assistance of HIPA in the first six months. The value of these transactions amounted to some EUR 234 million which was significantly higher than last year’s EUR 120 million, he added.
(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade)
