Boysen Group to create 400 new jobs in Hungary

The Boysen Group is creating 400 new jobs in Nyíregyháza, in eastern Hungary, with a 60 billion forint (EUR 150 million) investment that will turn out parts for electric cars supplying BMW’s Debrecen plant, Péter Szijjártó, the foreign and trade minister, said on Monday.

The new factory which is receiving state support of 5.6 billion forints will make extensive use of renewable energy, according to a ministry statement.

Szijjártó said that what was certain in an uncertain world was the rise of electric cars.

He said the rise of this industry had been the outcome of a political decision as much as a business matter, and the European Union has played a big role accordingly, partly in its aim to reduce pollution and meet its climate change goals.

The minister said it was bizarre when politicians who professed to be green campaigned against the electric car industry, “trying to create confusion and mischief”.

He said competition for such investments was heating up. “So whoever attracts investments may be able to avoid recession and mass unemployment,” he added.

Szijjártó noted that all three premium German car manufacturers saw Hungary as a key location of their electromobility strategy, and now many suppliers from the East were attracted to the country.

Hungary is the world’s third biggest producer of batteries, and he dismissed claims that it was dangerous to set up plants here.

“I’d draw their attention to the fact that huge electric battery factories already operate in Hungary,”

he said, adding that there was no sign of the deleterious impact that some opposition politicians were trying to make people believe.

The minister said that in the past 8 years, fully 183 large German investments have been implemented in Hungary. Further, after a 13 percent increase last year, bilateral trade reached a peak again, its volume worth 56 billion euros by the end of October, he said.