Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has said the pharmaceuticals industry is both one of the Hungarian economy’s drivers and one of its most innovative areas.
The prime minister was speaking in Szolnok on Tuesday, at the inauguration of a new building at the plant of the Hungarian-owned company Béres Pharmaceuticals Zrt.,
PM Orbán said the country’s goal is to achieve further expansion in the sector and for its share to increase from its present level of 6 percent of gross national product to 8 percent. Speaking on World Pharmacists Day, the prime minister highlighted that in Hungary the sector directly provides jobs for some 14,000 people and indirectly provides support for 34,000 families.
The prime minister congratulated Béres Pharmaceuticals on its latest 3.2 billion HUF development, for which the government provided a non-repayable grant of 1.3 billion HUF from its large companies investment support program. The project has created 37 new jobs, and as a result, the number of local people employed there has risen from an initial figure of 64 to more than 300.
PM Orbán pointed out that for over two decades there have been a number of developments at Béres Pharmaceuticals’ Szolnok plant, with the previous one having opened less than a year ago. These have been at a combined cost – including this project – of over 10 billion HUF, he said.
The prime minister noted that today the Hungarian economy is growing at a rate of between 4 and 5 percent, compared to a figure of around zero in 2010. He said that the rate of employment now stands at almost 70 percent, while in 2010 it was less than 55 percent.
“Today there are 4.5 million people in work, and full employment is well within reach. The future can be built on the foundations of hard work and families,” he said.
“The era of rescuing the country has given way to the era of building the country – including in the economic sense,” he added.