Hailing the government's strategy to make the country a meeting point for Eastern and Western investors, Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said Hungary's economic outlook is positive regardless of the poor European environment.
Addressing a forum of the US-Hungary Business Council (USHBC), Minister Szijjártó noted that American companies make up the second largest investor community in Hungary, with 1,700 businesses employing 105,000-110,000 people. This is especially important nowadays, “with the global economy having upturned twice in the past few years, most recently because of the outbreak of the war in Ukraine”, a foreign ministry statement quoted Minister Szijjártó as saying. The minister said intense debates had evolved in recent years over whether the government should change its economic strategy aimed at creating a labour-based society. Some, he said, had argued that the government should spend its resources on welfare payments for the jobless, but the government had instead focused on preventing unemployment. It is because of this strategy that the government’s investment promotion scheme made 2022 “the most successful year in Hungary’s economic history”, leading to record investments, employment and exports, Minister Szijjártó said.