The foreign minister has confirmed that foreign direct investments in Hungary amounted to an unprecedented HUF 1,676 billion (EUR 4.7bn) during the pandemic last year.
Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, told Kossuth Rádió that Hungary’s highly skilled workforce, its political stability, financing environment, logistics and infrastructure were all factors when it came to attracting investments.
The minister emphasized the importance of political stability, noting that Hungary’s government has a democratic mandate to govern with a two-thirds majority, guaranteeing the lowest personal income tax and the lowest single corporate tax in Europe.
Minister Szijjártó noted American investment magazine Site Selection has selected Hungary as one of the 10 most popular investment destinations in the world for the third time in a row. He insisted that the government’s policy of “opening up to the East” had been vindicated.
The minister said that in 2019, investments last year were from eastern rather than western countries. In 2020, China overtook South Korea as the biggest source of foreign direct investment from the East. Big incentive schemes have aided the purchase of new machinery, production lines, and the introduction of new technologies, he said.
Photo credit: koronavirus.gov.hu