Foreign minister in India – India’s Sona to build HUF 4.2 bn plant in Hungary

Budapest, July 5 (MTI) – Indian automotive industry supplier Sona will build a 4.2 billion forint (EUR 13.2m) plant in Polgár, in north-eastern Hungary, the Hungarian foreign minister said after talks in New Delhi on Tuesday.

The investment will create 130 jobs, Péter Szijjártó told MTI in a phone interview.

In addition to India, Sona has plants in the United States and Germany.

An agreement was also reached on establishing a joint venture between pre-fabricated building company Gremound Hungary and a local partner to participate in India’s programme to build 20 million low-rent homes, he said.

Another agreement could give Hungary a role in training Indian nuclear engineers, Szijjártó added.

Projects by India’s Apollo Tyres and Samvardhana Motherson Group (SMG) were the biggest greenfield investments in Hungary in 2014 and 2015, he said.

Szijjártó noted that Apollo Tyres is building a factory in Gyöngyöshalász, where production will begin next year. SMP is considering building new factories in addition to those in Mosonszolnok and Kecskemet, he said.

Szijjártó said that the talks also touched on India’s ties with the European Union. “It is Hungary’s firm standpoint that the EU must immediately renew trade talks with India that started in 2007 but broke off last year,” he added.

Bilateral trade between Hungary and India totals about 600 million euros a year, and Indian companies have invested some 2 billion dollars in Hungary so far, he noted.

Source: MTI