Prime Minister Viktor Orbán held a working lunch with Ola Källenius, the chairman and chief executive of the Mercedes-Benz Group in Stuttgart on Wednesday.
According to MTI, the talks focused on the upcoming Hungarian EU presidency’s plans to improve Europe’s competitiveness and develop its economy, as well as the status of Mercedes-Benz’s current investment projects. Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, met Mercedes executives and said the company’s investments are creating the largest-capacity car-manufacturing plant in Hungary. “All this will help put Hungary among the winners of a new global economic era,” Szijjártó said, according to a statement from the foreign ministry. The talks took place at a time when the automotive industry is undergoing “a revolutionary transformation”, Szijjártó said. He said Hungary was on the right track “to belong among the winners of the new era … this will bring several new jobs, modern technologies and economic growth to Hungary”. Mercedes-Benz is a key stakeholder in the global automotive industry and a frontrunner in the global transition to electromobility, Szijjártó said. It is also key for Hungary’s economic growth as it is implementing investments worth 600 billion forints (EUR 1.5bn) in the country, he added.