“Texan companies have made it clear that in view of the fact that they have brought production capacities to Hungary year ago, they already have enough experience to enable them to also gladly bring their capacities that represent higher added value and are built on research & development to our homeland”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó declared on Thursday in Houston following talks with the leaders of several Texan companies.

Amongst others, the Minister sat down to the negotiating table with the representatives of ExxonMobil, machine industry company Flowserve, software company National Instruments, printing technology specialist Motivating graphics, energy industry company Aspect Group, financial company JPMorgan Chase, transport service company Alamo, and food industry company AJC Houston.

In a statement to public media following the talks, Mr. Szijjártó said the largest companies, ExxonMobil, National Instruments and Flowserve, had decided to expand their Hungarian activities. “It is characteristic of these companies that they began operating in Hungary with production, but this was later followed by service and then research & development functions”, he highlighted.

“Texas is one of the leading powers in the United States from the perspective of economic and trade performance”, Mr. Szijjártó emphasised. “Houston is a true energy capital, in addition to which it is a city in which modern industry based on research & development is extremely highly developed, and also dictates the tempo for the economic development of the United States. For this reason, the nature of economic cooperation with Texas and its largest cities is particularly important to Hungary”, he stated.

“Texan enterprises are significantly contributing to the successful dimensional transition of the Hungarian economy, meaning that during the course of investment decisions on the part of international corporations, Hungary is now increasingly being regarded as a location for higher added value functions, rather than just a production location”, Mr. Szijjártó pointed out. “We have achieved full employment in Hungary, and accordingly the important thing is no longer how many jobs are created, but that the level of technology, added value and research & development content of existing jobs should expand dynamically. Enterprises from the United States and Texas can play an important role in this regard, because their level of satisfaction is driving them to make further decisions in favour of Hungary”, he said.

The Minister also met with representatives of Hungarian organisations in Texas. The main goal of his visit was the official opening of Hungary’s foreign trade and consular representation in the city, thanks to which the number of American cities in which Hungary has an official representation has now increased to seven.

(MTI)