Hungarian FM Szijjártó thankful for American FDI

Companies from the United States form the second-biggest group of investors in Hungary and play a “big role” in ensuring the country’s economic neutrality, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said at a USHBC roundtable talk in Budapest on Thursday.

In a statement issued by his ministry, Szijjártó said the government was constantly working to improve conditions to draw more investments to Hungary. He acknowledged challenges in recent years, especially the impact of the war in Ukraine, which required a focus on bringing down inflation instead of spurring economic growth in 2023, but said Hungary was “back on track” and the government was ready to give “new impetus” to the economy.

“We want to achieve growth of between 3pc and 6pc next year,” he said, pointing to big investments in the pipeline, including new local manufacturing capacity of German car makers BMW and Mercedes, and plants of Chinese battery maker CATL and EV manufacturer BYD.

Photo: FB/Szijjártó

Adopting a strategy of economic neutrality, Hungary’s government aims to draw investments from all corners of the world, he added.

Hungary is meeting point for economies of East and West

Szijjártó said Hungary had become a kind of “meeting point” for the economies of the East and the West and spoke out against efforts to decouple those economies. He added that those efforts were “far from reality” as mutual dependence was increasing.

He noted that Hungary was one of just three countries in the world that was home to plants of all three premium German car brands, while it had also welcomed manufacturing capacity of five of the world’s top ten Asian battery manufacturers.

“For us, economic neutrality means that in Hungary, an American can work together with anybody, be they Chinese, Indian, Korean, Dutch or German. It doesn’t matter to us, as long as they follow the rules and want to invest here, it’s alright with us,” he said.

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