Car giant Ford has opened a new service center in Budapest that has created hundreds of new jobs.
Péter Szijjártó, minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, stressed that that the new facility means Ford’s largest administrative center in Europe is being established in Hungary.
The minister revealed that in addition to pricing and production management functions serving all of Europe’s markets, the center will also provide HR services for all European, Middle Eastern and African countries.
Minister Szijjártó noted that development will go a long way to helping Hungary achieve its goal of creating a knowledge-based economy in research and development.
The minister said that by the end of next year, Ford will employ 700 people in Hungary, the majority of which will be young professionals with university degrees who speak several languages.
Minister Szijjártó highlighted that cooperation between Hungary and Ford has reached an important milestone, which will be followed by others.
The minister said the automotive industry represents the backbone of the Hungarian economy. He explained that the production value of the Hungarian automotive industry increased by eight percent year-on-year, following last year’s record figure.
He recalled that last year was the first time in the history of the Hungarian national economy that the production value of the automotive industry had exceeded 8 trillion HUF (24.63bn EUR).
During the first six months of 2018 this figure already exceeded 4.5 trillion HUF (13.85bn EUR), meaning there is a good chance that the Hungarian automotive industry will once again achieve its highest ever recorded level of performance by the end of this year, he added.