Foreign minister hails increasing Baden-Wuerttemberg investment in Hungary

More and more companies from Baden-Wuerttemberg invest in job-creating projects in Hungary, Péter Szijjártó, Hungary’s minister of foreign affairs and trade, told MTI on Friday.

Speaking on the sidelines of talks in Stuttgart, Szijjártó noted that “encouraged by the success of large factories” such as Daimler and Bosch, an increasing number of medium-size businesses also choose Hungary for new investment projects.

For example, Szijjártó mentioned engineering firm Robert Buerkle, which is building a plant in Debrecen, in eastern Hungary, creating 100 new jobs.

Thanks to comprehensive and diverse economic cooperation, Baden-Wuerttemberg is Hungary’s second biggest trade partner among Germany’s 16 lands, with bilateral trade exceeding 11 billion euros last year, he said.

Companies from Baden-Wuerttemberg play an especially important role in the development of Hungary’s car industry and greatly contributed to a 6 percent increase in the sector last year, he said. The total production value of Hungary’s car industry exceeded 8,500 billion forints (EUR 26.9bn) in 2018 and the sector employed 174,000 people, he added. Thanks partly to companies from Baden-Wuerttemberg, Hungary was among the world’s 20 largest car exporters with total exports worth 20 billion euros in 2018, Szijjártó said.

Photo: MTI

Szijjártó also had talks with Wolfgang Reinhart, group leader of the co-ruling Christian Democrats in Baden-Wuerttemberg’s Landtag.

“As for German-Hungarian ties there are a lot of things connecting us in the areas of the economy, culture and personal relations,” he said.

“Inevitably, there are issues over which we may not see eye to eye, but that is natural; we see the world from different locations,” Szijjártó added. “Migration is one such issue; we have made it clear that Hungary will not be a destination for migrants in any way. It will protect its borders at all cost and will do everything for an anti-migration majority in the European Parliament after the EP elections,” he went on to say.

Featured image: MTI

Source: MTI