Foreign minister Peter Szijjarto – Photo: Facebook

Szijjarto inaugurates HUF 650 million medical equipment plant

Peter Szijjarto, the minister of foreign affairs and trade, on Tuesday inaugurated a new production facility, an expansion of Hungarian-owned medical equipment manufacturer Radius Signage's plant in eastern Hungary. Hungary is now almost self-sufficient if there is a new medical emergency, the minister said.

The 650 million forint (EUR 1.7m) investment in Jaszapati has received government support of 250 million forints, helping to preserve 63 jobs in the town, the foreign ministry said.

In his speech, Szijjarto said the pandemic and other crises had brought about a global shortage of medical equipment. “Availability of medical equipment and national production capacity have become an issue of national security.”

Should another medical emergency hit Hungary now, it would be capable of producing the necessary equipment, Szijjarto said. Hungary is building up capacity to produce vaccines, and “we are well on the way to self-sufficiency regarding medical equipment, too”, he said.

The production of medical equipment in Hungary grew by 13 percent in 2020, by 12 percent in 2021 and jumped by 36 percent in January 2022, he said.

The government’s investment support scheme has helped 48 companies in Jasz-Nagykun-Szolnok County, where 14 billion forints in government grants supported investments worth 34 billion forints, he said.

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