Thanks to the new investment and development project to be realised by ZF Hungária Limited, the production activities of the company’s plant in Eger will be expanded to include the manufacturing of eight-gear automatic transmission systems for cars; the investment will create a minimum of 770 new jobs”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said on Friday in Budapest at a press conference to announce the new investment in Eger by ZF Hungária Ltd.

“Automotive industry company ZF, which has a hundred-year history and is a leading player on the global market, will be realising a 31 billion forint (EUR 100 million) investment in Eger, and in view of the size of the project and the number of new jobs being created the Hungarian Government is contributing to the investment with 6.7 billion forints in non-returnable funding”, Mr. Szijjártó highlighted.

“Hungarian exports and the country’s foreign trade surplus reached their highest ever level last year, and the Hungarian automotive industry also broke all previous records in 2016, with a total production value of 7874 billion forints (EUR 25.5bn)”, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade recalled.

“The global economy is changing and the competitiveness and economic success of countries now depends on whether or not corporations that are the frontrunners in digitalisation, research & development and the application of state-of-the-art technologies choose them as sites for new investment. Countries that can convince companies that employ state-of-the-art technology to invest in them will be strong in the future; those that are incapable of doing so will be the losers of the new world economic order”, he pointed out.

“Hungary has so far been an ideal production location, and the task now is to become an ideal location for research & development. The Government has made the decisions and introduced the measures required to facilitate this; it has introduced Europe’s lowest level of corporate tax, linked tax benefits to research & development, and improved the vocational training system”, Mr. Szijjártó said.

“The development of the Hungarian economy is fundamentally determined by the automotive industry, and if there exists a sector of industry in which production and competitiveness criteria are being transformed, then that is certainly the automotive industry”, he explained.

“The automotive industry has stepped into the electromobility phase, and in fact these days the self-driven car represents the next major perspective”, the Minister highlighted. “The strength of the Hungarian automotive industry is also indicated by the fact that 15 of the world’s 20 biggest first-tier suppliers are present here in Hungary”, Mr. Szijjártó added, pointing out that ZF happens to be one of the world’s largest first-tier suppliers, employing 140 thousand people worldwide, including 13 thousand solely within the field of research & development.

The Foreign Minister reminded the press that ZF Hungária currently employs around 900-1000 people in Hungary and has manufactured almost 1.5 million gearboxes since it began operations in Eger. “ZF will be bringing completely new technology to Hungary via the new project. This will be favourable to both small and medium-sized suppliers; Hungarian enterprises currently supply 2 percent of this technology, but ZF Hungária would like to increase this ration to 15 percent within the near future”, the Minister indicated.

“Once the project is completed, all of the gearboxes manufactured at the plant will be exported, meaning that Hungarian exports will increased by a further 200 billion forints-a-year (EUR 650M) thanks to ZF’s latest investment”, Mr. Szijjártó highlighted.

(MTI/Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade)