“Thanks to soon-to-begin and planned development projects, the annual production value of the Hungarian automotive industry could soon reach 10 trillion forints (EUR 31.3bn)”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó declared at a press conference in Budapest on Friday to announce a new investment by Enmech Hungary Limited.

Mr. Szijjártó told the press that automotive parts manufacturer Enmech Hungary Ltd. will be expanding its plant in Pécel with an investment of 6.4 billion forints (EUR 20 million), which the Government is assisting with 641 million forints in non-returnable funding. He said similar investments, and the development of second and third tier Hungarian suppliers, are of key importance.

“The expansion of Enmech’s plant is also particularly important because it reinforces the positions of the Hungarian automotive industry on the self-driven vehicle and electromobility market”, he stressed. “Last year, the sector produced almost 8500 billion forints and employed 172 thousand people in Hungary”, the Minister said.

In his speech to announce the new project by the Japanese-owned company, Mr Szijjártó pointed out that economic relations between the two countries are worthy of the 150th anniversary of the establishing of diplomatic relations. Japan is one of the most important buyers of the Hungarian food industry and the country’s largest Asian investor; the 160 Japanese companies operating in Hungary have created 27 thousand jobs, and trade flow between the two countries exceeded 2.5 billion dollars last year.

The Minister welcomed the fact that the free trade agreement between Japan and the EU has given rise to the world’s largest market of some 635 million people since, as he explained, thanks to the development projects of recent years Hungary enterprises are also competitive within the international arena. “Hungary and Central Europe are the growth engine of the continent, and for this reason it is no accident that companies from the Far East that develop state-of-the-art technologies are bringing more and more investment projects to Hungary”, he added.

Wolfgang Bochtler, Europe Director of Mektec Europe GmbH, Enmech’s parent company, said production at the plant is expected to begin in October, adding that the Pest County plant will, amongst others, manufacture parts for batteries and the sensors of self-driven vehicles, in addition to which it ill also be counting on Hungarian professionals with relation to development tasks. The company group employs 21 thousand people in 18 plants worldwide, and its turnover exceeds 3.2 billion dollars-a-year.

The region’s member of parliament Lajos Szűcs (Fidesz) told the press that the development of transports links could reinforce the area’s capital attraction capability, and that from an economic development perspective, southern Budapest and the surrounding settlements is one of the country’s most important areas. According to publicly available company information, in 2017 Enmech Hungary Ltd. achieved over 12 billion forints (EUR 37.5 million) in turnover from its domestic and international sales, and realised after-tax profits of over 214 million forints.

(MTI)