“We must prepare in the long term with relation to protecting against the epidemic; this has already become evident, and this long-term protection must be realised within several areas”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in a statement to Hungarian news agency MTI on Saturday.

Mr. Szijjártó emphasised that the most important task is to protect the lives and health of the public, and one of the decisive factors with relation to this is that Hungary should have available a sufficient quantity of protective equipment. He said it was good news that a shipment of 27 tons of protective equipment will be arriving from China on Saturday. “And on Sunday, another two planes will be bringing 3 million 270 thousand face masks to Budapest to ensure that everyone who is involved in healthcare protection is supplied with suitable protective equipment”, he highlighted.

“We must also think about the period following the pandemic, the rebooting of the Hungarian economy and the protection of workplaces”, the Minister added. “Hungary is exploiting the opportunity being afforded by the fact that the European Commission is repealing several pieces of unnecessary legislation and is introducing less strict and simpler regulations in several areas. It is in this spirit that the Hungarian government is deciding on measures aimed at ensuring that Hungary continues to be the most popular and attractive investment destination in the Central European region”, he stated.

“The confidence of large companies and their new investments are necessary to ensure that Hungarian small and medium-sized businesses can also count on achieving a growth trajectory in the long term”, Mr. Szijjártó said, justifying the statement with the fact that the appearance and operation of large corporations in Hungary represents a major source of income for small and medium-sized businesses.

“Practically every Hungarian small and medium-sized enterprise is now part of the supply chain of large international corporations, and the future of these supply chains depends on the number of new investments arriving in Hungary in future”, he stated. “The government is working to maintain the momentum of new investments being realised in Hungary”, Mr. Szijjártó emphasised.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade/MTI)