“The Tesco Group will be opening a new business and technological service centre in Hungary, creating 800 new jobs”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó announced in Budapest on Monday.

“The Budapest service centre will be providing jobs for young university graduates who speak foreign languages within the fields of payroll services, labour administration, sales-related administration and customer services”, Mr. Szijjártó told the press. “One of the most important signs of the dimensional shift of the Hungarian economy is that the added value of workplaces is continuously increasing, and their level of technology is improving”. “The fact that more and more companies are setting up service centres in Hungary, where they are moving increasingly complex tasks that require more knowledge, is proof that the Hungarian economy is successfully transitioning into a new dimension”, he emphasised.

“More and more large international companies are providing the background to their global operations via Hungarian service centres”, the Minister added. Mr. Szijjártó highlighted the fact that six cities from both the European Union and outside the EU had been in competition for the investment, which will be coming to Budapest. The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade recalled that Tesco has been the Hungarian Government’s strategic partner since 2012. “The company is the foreign investor that employs the largest number of people in Hungary, some 16 thousand. Tesco’s Hungarian activities involve continuous innovation, although this is rarely mentioned”, the Minister said, citing as examples the introduction of self-service checkouts and the online distribution system.

Mr. Szijjártó added that Tesco’s Hungarian activities are also contributing to the dynamic growth of Hungarian export performance: more and more Hungarian food industry products are reaching foreign markets via the company’s network. The Minister said Tesco is also playing an important with relation to the future of Hungarian-British cooperation. British investors form the sixth largest investor community in Hungary, 750 British companies provide jobs for 55 thousand Hungarians, and last year Hungarian exports to Great Britain increased by 11 percent, he also stated.

According to Mr. Szijjártó, in recent years the service centre sector has regularly finished in second place behind the automotive industry with relation to the number of investments made in Hungary. There are currently 110 service centres operating in the country, providing jobs for over 50 thousand university graduates.

CEO of Tesco Central Europe Matt Simister stressed that determining factors in Tesco’s investment decision included the Hungarian Government’s approach and the country’s economic performance. “Our commitment to the Central European and Hungarian market is indicated by the fact that the new business and technological service centre is being established in Hungary”, he added.

CEO of Tesco Business Services Sumit Mitra told reporters that the highly-trained Hungarian workforce, the excellent infrastructure and the good education background also played an important role in Tesco’s decision to set up its new service centre in Hungary. “Budapest staff will be integrating into existing specialist international teams, and recruitment for the new positions has already begun”, he stated.

(Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister/MTI)