Microsoft To Close Nokia Plant In Hungary

Budapest, July 17 (MTI) – Microsoft will shut down the Nokia plant in Komarom (NW Hungary), which employs about 1,800 people, the company told MTI.

Microsoft, which recently acquired Nokia’s handset business, announced on Thursday that it plans to cut 18,000 jobs over the next year.

Zoltan Laszlo, a union official in Komarom, told MTI that the management of the Nokia unit there had announced in the afternoon that the plant would be closed by November. Talks on severance packages with workers will start on July 28, he added.

State secretary of foreign affairs and trade Peter Szijjarto said the foreign ministry and the economy ministry had prepared a five-step action plan in response to Microsoft-Nokia’s global layoff decisions. He added that he had instructed heads of the Hungarian investment agency to speed up talks, already in an advanced stage, with three international companies that plan to invest and create jobs in Komarom.