Hungarian retail chains ready to employ refugees

Hungary’s retail chains hit by a labour shortage are “open to employing refugees” from Ukraine, the head of the National Trade Association said on Thursday.

György Vámos said his association was in contact with charity organisations receiving refugees, and anyone seeking jobs would be informed about vacant positions.

Tesco said earlier that refugees planning to stay in Hungary were welcome to take up employment. Tesco currently has 385 jobs to offer Hungarian speakers. Auchan, another supermarket, told MTI the company was in the process of drawing up employment criteria for refugees.

Read also: Orbán: refugees have to work in Hungary!

The Hungarian unit of German company Schott, which makes specialty glass products, plans to spend 28 billion forints to expand its base in Lukácsháza, in south-western Hungary, creating 120 jobs, Péter Szijjártó, the minister of foreign affairs and trade, said on Thursday. Hungary’s government is supporting the investment with a 3.3 billion forint grant, the minister said.

Schott will add production of prefillable sterile syringes to its Hungarian operations with the project.

These products were earlier made solely at Schott’s Swiss-based unit, so there was intensive competition for the investment among potential locations, Szijjártó said.

Output of Hungary’s medical supplies sector rose 12 percent last year to 275 billion forints, the minister said. Hungary’s exports of syringes increased to fifty times its level in 2010 and the country takes eleventh place in the world in this respect, he said. Szijjártó also noted that the value of trade between Germany and Hungary also grew by 12 percent last year, to approaching 60 billion, while Hungarian exports to Germany amounted to 32 billion.