Last year, the Hungarian state investment incentive system managed an unprecedented 1,433 investments totaling 1,676 billion forints (€4.65 billion) to Hungary during the pandemic, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said on Sunday in an interview on national station Kossuth Rádió. Szijjártó added that before investing, companies consider aspects such as labor, political stability, financial factors, and the logistics and infrastructure issue.
According to Szijjártó, the success is mainly due to the fact that Hungary features a uniquely stable political environment in comparison to other European countries, as a political force with a democratic mandate governs with a two-thirds majority, and that, additionally, the country has the lowest personal income and corporate tax rate in Europe — and both are flat rates. He emphasized that Hungary had strengthened its position in all four respects, as shown by the fact that the American investment magazine Site Selection chose Hungary as one of the 10 most popular investment destinations in the world for the third time in a row.
In addition, he noted that the strategy of opening to the east was also correct. Similarly to 2019, in 2020 most investments came to Hungary not from a western but from an eastern country, in 2019 from South Korea, and in 2020 from China. He said that large-scale investment incentive programs provided support for the purchase of new machines and lines and the introduction of new technologies, so that Hungarian companies can now meet the market demand that has arisen due to changes in the world economy. The figures showing the state of the Hungarian economy in the second quarter should already have an impact on the large-scale investments that have now been made or are being made as a result of large investment incentive programs, said the minister, who indicated that they are currently competing for €13 billion of foreign direct investment to Hungary.
Answering a question about the administration change in the United States, Szijjártó said, “We base our foreign policy on mutual respect and part of this mutual respect is that we do not comment on the domestic political relations of other countries… All we want is for each country to be able to manage its own internal affairs in the best possible way, we are in favor of all countries overcoming difficulties. It is in our interest that we can maintain the good cooperation we have had so far with the United States.” Title image: Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó. (source: Facebook)
