Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, has revealed that foreign direct investment in Hungary reached a record 6 billion euros or 2,600 billion forints in 2022.
The minister said on Facebook that the list of investors was topped by South Korea in terms of the volume of investments, and by Germany in terms of the number of jobs created. Minister Szijjártó qualified the structure of FDI as “healthy”, with 48% of the investment coming from the East, and 42% from the West. Hungarian investments account for about 10% of the total, the minister said. The majority of investments were in the electric vehicle industry, he added. Hungary’s goal has to be bypassing a recession and maintaining economic growth, he said. This can only be done by bringing more and more investment to the country, he said. Minister Szijjártó said the EV industry attracted 73% of investments in Hungary this year. Altogether 43% had to do with electric battery production, while 30% were auto industry investments focused on the production of electric or hybrid vehicles, he added. The food industry attracted 10% of investments, while 8% of investments went to service centres, the minister said. Minister Szijjártó emphasized the role of the government’s system of investment promotion in this year’s record.