Foreign investors’ confidence in Hungary ‘unbroken despite hysterics’, minister says

Peter Szijjarto spoke at a project launch by Austria’s plywood maker KRONOSPAN-MOFA, and said the group would increase its capacity at its plant in Mohacs, in southern Hungary, using a budget of 2 billion forints (EUR 5.4m). He added that the Hungarian government was supporting the project with a grant of 286 million forints, “helping to preserve 230 jobs”.

“Economic crises always impact jobs, and the most important task of a government is to protect them; investments and government aid to those investments are crucial in saving jobs,” he said.

Szijjarto said Hungary had seen 6.5 billion euros in foreign investment last year, which he said was a “huge record”. He added, however, that last year’s record had been broken in the first half of 2023, while greenfield developments had shrunk by 15 percent elsewhere in the European Union.

Concerning the wood processing industry, which employs 16,000 people in the country, he said it had also broken a record last year, increasing by 26 percent and its earnings nearing 600 billion forints.

Austria is Hungary’s third largest trading partner, with bilateral trade increasing by 37 percent in 2022, to a total turnover of a record 17 billion euros, the minister added.