“2017’s four percent economic growth was achieved thanks to the performance of the Hungarian people”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said on Tuesday in Nagyvázsony at the official inauguration of Novus Interior Hungary Ltd.’s new production hall.
“In 2010, unemployment in Hungary stood at over 12 percent, but has since fallen to just 3.7 percent, which gives rise to new challenge”, the Minister said, explaining that investors setting up shop in Hungary now have to answer the question of whether or not there will be enough skilled labour.
According to Mr. Szijjártó, investments like the one in Nagyvázsony show that “we are capable of creating the conditions needed to provide for new labour requirements in every single corner of Hungary”.
Novus Interior Hungary Limited constructed a two thousand square metre production hall in Nagyvázsony with an investment of over half a billion forints (EUR 1.6 million) from its own resources. The automotive industry supplier will be creating seventy new jobs in the region by 2019 within the framework of a two-stage investment totalling over one billion forints (EUR 3.2 million).
“In favour of the Swedish owner’s Hungarian investment is that fact that Hungary has the lowest taxes in Europe, the education system is capable of generating a suitable number of highly-trained professionals, and the Government has introduced Europe’s most flexible labour laws, which provide a good balance between the rights of employers and workers, in addition to which Hungary is also clearly the logistics centre of Central Europe”, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade told the press.
“But most importantly, the Swedish owner is satisfied with the performance of the Hungarian people”, he emphasised.
“The Hungarian automotive industry fundamentally determines the performance of the Hungarian national economy; 28.7 percent of Hungary’s industrial output is derived from the automotive industry”, Mr. Szijjártó pointed out, adding that last year the Hungarian automotive industry had achieved a record production value of eight trillion forints (EUR 25.6 billion), 92 percent of which went to export. “This proves that the Hungarian automotive industry is also competitive internationally”, he declared.
The Minister also spoke about the fact that trade flow between Hungary and Sweden also increased significantly last year, exceeding two billion euros, with Hungarian exports increasing by 21 percent to almost one-and-a-half billion euros. “18 percent of these 1.5 billion euros were generated by the automotive industry”, Mr. Szijjártó added.
Deputy Chairman of Veszprém County Council Zoltán Fenyvesi stressed: With its unemployment rate of 3.5 percent, Veszprém County is one of Hungary’s most dynamically developing regions. With relation to the importance of job-creating investment projects, he said that in addition to reducing the number of commuters in the region, new investments also increase the city’s tax revenues.
Novus Interior Hungary Ltd.’s Swedish owner, Björn Hedenberg said the new investment was a milestone in the life of the plant in Nagyvázsony, which was established in 1998, and the town’s independent Mayor Szabolcs Fábry also said the investment was “cause for optimism”.
Managing Director Károly Kis-Kapin told reporters that the first, five-month phase of the project involved the construction of the new production hall, while the second stage will be about increasing development and logistics capacities.
According to his electronically distributed briefing, Novus Interior Hungary Ltd. employed 118 people in 2016 and 106 in the previous year. In 2016, the company achieved net turnover of 1.7 billion forints (EUR 5.5 million) and over 1.3 billion forints (EUR 4.2 million) in 2015.
(MTI)
