Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Speech at the Inauguration of Stühmer Limited’s New Plant
One receives a letter from Maklár; you open it. It’s from a chocolate factory – so far so good. Then one begins thinking about why the name sounds so familiar, because not everyone is born east of the Danube, some are born to the west. Why has a young man from Transdanubia heard of the small village of Maklár? You wrack your brains and then suddenly you remember; the miller of Maklár! One suddenly realises that everyone should have heard about this settlement because of the Miller of Maklár in Eclipse of the Crescent Moon [by Géza Gárdonyi], and one immediately feels inclined to accept this invitation.
Our Dear Hosts, Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is perhaps surprising that a government feels the need attend the inauguration of a project of this size, which is significant from the point of view of the village, even more significant from the perspective of the family, but not particularly significant in itself with regard to the whole of the national economy. Because people are used to seeing the Prime Minister and members of the government on television in places where a new model of car needs to be driven off the production line or the monies invested in a project are in the tens of billions of forints. Despite this, Ladies and Gentlemen, we should all pay more attention to Hungarian small and, in this case I think I should rather say, medium-sized enterprises. We should pay more attention because first of all, these enterprises are Hungarian. The large, international companies are extremely important from the point of view of the Hungarian national economy, and we must provide suitable inventive so that they stay here and continue operating here, but we should also bear in mind that they are Hungarian-based companies shoes owners live somewhere far away from Hungary, outside the country, and are reaping the well-deserved rewards of their investments. In contrast, small and medium-sized enterprises are Hungarian. The owners of these businesses live here among us, with us. Everything that contributes to their success also contributes to our success and the success of the Hungarians, and increases the wealth of all of Hungary. It is perhaps also right that we should be aware of the fact that Hungarian small and medium-sized enterprises employ 75% of all people working in Hungary. Large investment projects are very important, they produce huge export figures, but it is primarily small and medium-sized enterprises that provide work and a living for families here in Hungary. They provide a living for 75% of all people working in Hungary. And accordingly we must pay more attention to small and medium-sized enterprises, and one of the reasons I am here today is so that my presence sends a message to small and medium-sized enterprises in Hungary: what you are doing is important and we have an interest in your success.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The indices of a national economy may look good – and the indices of the Hungarian national economy do look good today, whether with respect to government debt, the budget deficit and the balance of payments – but the numbers in themselves do not make a national economy predictable or stable. What makes an economic system predictable is real life, and real life in Hungary primarily means the world of small and medium-sized businesses. So if we want to make the Hungarian economy more stable in the long term then we must suppose medium-sized Hungarian businesses such as that of our host.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We have come to attend today’s inauguration to celebrate a simple idea. And the idea goes like this: “Let’s not simply be good; let’s be the best!” Well, if one takes a look around here one can see that we are pretty good when it comes to chocolate. I am a step ahead of you, because I arrived earlier.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Let’s be the first and the best in chocolate production – we have Frigyes Stühmer to thank for this idea. It was he who, in the spirit of this principle, established the first Hungarian chocolate factory that was capable of competing with the Austrian and Czech products of the time. To all intents and purposes it was he who, through hard work and personal commitment, created the Hungarian confectionery industry. It was he who didn’t make do with what he had; it was he who wanted to be the best in the continent. And he succeeded. He established an industrial sector that was so strong that – irrespective of the historical era – it gave the Hungarians the opportunity to always be among the first in Europe.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It was into this tradition that our host, to whom we have to thank for today’s gathering, stepped. Innovative ideas stem from a knowledge of the present. From knowing what the present requires from the past. This means that one realises that one must step in, that one must continue a long forgotten tradition; one must continue it because it creates value, because it is still marketable today and because we feel that if we did not do so, if we did not step in, if we did not continue this tradition, then we Hungarians would be less without it. In 2006, Péter Csóll decided that it would be worth picking up the remaining threads of this tradition, which following the Compromise [the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867] sweetened the lives of the people of Hungary year by year. The owners deserve a great deal of respect for having revived this brand name in 2000 instead of allowing it to be forgotten, and it is also a great joy to us that, despite the company’s rapid success, it has remained under Hungarian ownership. Congratulations and thank you for this.
In recent years you have shown us how to achieve great success by taking small steps forward. In my material and my notes, and in the information I received about the company it says that Stühmer is now standing on its own two feet and has 41 employees. I thank you in the name of the Hungarian Government for providing a living to 41 Hungarian families. I also see that your company has emerged stronger from the economic crisis and has every chance of achieving similar success in the upcoming years. Perhaps even success in Europe of the magnitude that the trademark you own achieved in the years prior to the Second World War. This is a success that provides encouragement to all of us and we would like to see many more successes of this kind today in Hungary.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We Hungarians would also do well to heed the advice of Frigyes Stühmer, because only those country have a chance of emerging victorious from the competition in today’s global economy who don’t just want to be good, but who want to be the best. Those who don’t want to be the best cannot compete in today’s global economy.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
As far as our homeland is concerned – looking a little beyond Maklár now – we Hungarians realised at a very early stage that there are deep-seated changes going on within practically every sector of the global economy. We realised that if we want to stay in the competition then we must take part in the transformation of the global economy, although of course within our own sphere of influence. If we do nothing but complain about the transformation of the global economy, then we will come out losers. If you want to win, the minimum is that you should enter the competition. This is compulsory for Hungary too. And this is why, Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Mayor, that in recent years Hungary has once again begun to gain momentum. We are still far from where we would like to be, but we can state that the country has begun to gain momentum, that it is performing increasingly well and that today there it has a good chance of once again being among the frontrunners in several fields. A country can only be successful if its citizens are successful. A successful country with unsuccessful people; a match-up like that cannot exist, Ladies and Gentlemen. Hungary too can only become a frontrunner if a myriad of enterprises such as the one behind me are moving it forward. And in addition people with an entrepreneurial spirit who commit themselves to hard work and are prepared to go into enterprise, what is needed for people and their businesses to achieve success is good politics that is capable of helping domestic enterprises by establishing an economic environment that reinforces them. Hungary has already taken steps forward in this respect, and this is something that today is not only acknowledged here at home, but also internationally. It is an interesting question why we Hungarians, together, were capable of achieving this. As I see it, we were able to move forward at a faster pace than most other European countries because we were united. And we were capable of preserving this unity despite all difficulties, set-backs, external criticism and attacks. Today, this unity is Hungary’s greatest competitive advantage economically. It was this unity that was required to enable us to radically change everything that until then had prevented us, the Hungarians, from undertaking great deeds and doing business successfully. We were prevented from doing so by our tax system, which today instead supports those who create value, produce and provide work to others. We were prevented from doing so by our bad vocational training system, which we have overhauled so that it is now in harmony with the requirements of the private sector. We have not yet finished the job and we still have much to do in this area, because we all know that without highly trained and diligent people it is impossible to manufacture anything.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
My wish for our Host and my wish for Hungary is that we continue along this path in future and that we continue to have the courage to set ourselves objectives. The current administration has set Hungary no less a goal than that we should have the most competitive economic environment in Europe, at least. I am revealing no secrets if I tell you that I had a meeting with the owner prior to this inauguration ceremony, and I must say that the information he provided also supports the fact that the most competitive economic environment today is not yet provided by Hungary. We still have a lot of work to do to achieve that. I am grateful to our host for, similarly to many other economic operators in Hungary, regularly providing the Hungarian Government with suggestions and advice in this regard. I hope that some of these recommendations will be included in the new budget, beginning from January 2015.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
In the upcoming period – as our host also told me today – it will be those counties who are able to provide cheaper energy to their enterprises who will enjoy a competitive advantage. And accordingly Hungary must strive to provide the cheapest energy in Europe to its industrial production. When you hear news from Brussels regarding the fact that a Hungarian Prime Minister is fighting all kinds of battles in the interests of hard to understand energy investment projects, please think of the fact that we are fighting these battles to gain the room for movement, the room for regulation, which we can exploit to ensure that Hungary can provide its enterprises with the cheapest gas and electricity in Europe.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
If we are successful then it will lead to the creation of new factories and new jobs in Hungary. But the most important thing, Ladies and Gentlemen, is that we recognise that the Hungarian economy will only be absolutely steadfast if we multiply the performance of our small and medium-sized enterprises. And what this requires – as the owner also stressed during our meeting today – is that we must make the Hungarian tax system more entrepreneur-friendly, more viable and more flexible so that the undoubtedly needed tax regulations do not represent an unbearable, or practically unbearable bureaucratic burden to people who want to start up a business in Hungary and are willing to go into enterprise.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I would also like to inform you that in the interests of supporting the Hungarian production industry the Government will be spending an estimated 300 billion forints on food industry investment projects during the upcoming years, thanks to which new jobs will be created for people living in rural areas.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Based on all that I have said, and especially based on what we have all seen here today, we can perhaps state that we have reason to believe that this era on the threshold of which we are now standing will be a period of Hungarian successes, and there is a good chance that Hungary and Hungarian enterprises can take their place among the frontrunners in Europe as a result. I believe that enterprising Hungarians are capable of placing the Hungarian economy on a growing trajectory for many years to come and are capable of guaranteeing people new jobs, and through that their daily bread and a secure living. Business like your, our dear Host, will play an important role in the competition for first place. We, who are here today, can see that you have the strength and the talent to – following in the footsteps of Frigyes Stühmer – be the best of the best, and not just here at home, but in the whole of Europe. I congratulate you and wish you much success in this endeavour, and good health to your family.
Thank you for your kind attention.
(Prime Minister’s Office)
