“The activities of international companies that are involved in production in Hungary reinforces Hungarian enterprises, and accordingly the Government will continue to support investment from abroad and facilitate the highest possible ratio of Hungarian suppliers”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó at the HG Média and Trend FM commercial conference in Budapest on Thursday.
The Minister reported on the fact that several of the 132 projects with relation to which negotiations are currently ongoing could soon result in major investments that will be significant from the perspective of the national economy. He also stressed that the 76 companies that have concluded strategic partnership agreements with the Hungarian Government to date have increased their ratio of Hungarian suppliers from 55 percent to 61 percent based on those agreements, which represents billions of euros in additional revenue for enterprises operating in Hungary.
Mr. Szijjártó added that in addition to supplier activities, the international competitiveness and appearance on foreign markets of small and medium-sized enterprises is also being facilitated by state loan programmes, and by government measures that support technological know-how, innovation skills and workforce mobility. From among the latter he highlighted the incentives for the construction of employee housing, funding to facilitate the accommodation and travel of workers, and the reduction of the cost of employing staff via cuts in employer contributions.
The technological know-how of enterprises is being reinforced by the Industry 4.0 Model Factory Programme and the Modern Enterprises Programme, while the Government is facilitating the appearance of Hungarian goods and services on foreign markets by providing professional training courses and organising business forums, he added.
The Minister welcomed the fact that small companies have an increasing share of the state loan portfolio, in view of the fact that the majority of the 44 billion forints in Eximbank loans provided during the first quarter of this year, 57 percent, were received by small and medium-sized enterprises.
Mr. Szijjártó said Hungary’s export-import bank would remain part of the Ministry’s portfolio, and the Government will be striving to maintain the ratio of smaller companies receiving loans.
He also said that the activities of the Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency (HIPA) will in future also include the supervision of industrial parks in view of the fact that the National Industrial Park Management and Development Company will be merging with the agency.
During the Government’s upcoming term in office the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade would like to act as an initiator of legislation and is open to feedback from the private sector, the Minister indicated.
At the event, Operative Deputy CEO of Eximbank József Dancsó said improving competitiveness will be one of the greatest challenges of the upcoming years, in the interests of which he called for the drawing down of funding to be made simpler.
Loans are increasingly shifting towards the SME sector, in view of which the operations of the Bank must also be reorganised accordingly. The institution’s role is particularly important in areas where the financial intermediary system is lacking, although the willingness of commercial banks to provide loans has improved over the past year or two, and their loan activities are also increasingly including smaller enterprises, he stressed.
(MTI)
