Debrecen4U
May 22, 2025
Debrecen in focus at the Automotive Summit
“After the crash. Before the redesign.” That was the motto of the Automotive Summit 2025.
One of the key topics of the Budapest automotive conference was Debrecen and the investments coming here. Mayor László Papp said that Debrecen has become an unavoidable factor in the European automotive industry due to the economic development successes of recent years.
The Automotive Summit 2025, attended by automotive industry players, was held in one of Budapest’s tallest buildings. This year’s conference theme was international processes and their domestic impacts.
“We are facing a complex set of problems in the global automotive industry, where the trade war, the effects of the post-COVID period, the emergence of a new player, the difficulties of the supply chain, and interest rate issues are all present. The profession is preoccupied with a great many different challenges at the same time,” automotive industry expert Gábor Várkonyi said.
Companies such as Mol, BMW, Mercedes, Ford and Semcorp were represented at the event. As automotive industry expert Gábor Várkonyi said, “Debrecen is a success story, which is why several presentations and panel discussions spoke about the city, which is why several presentations and panel discussions were about the city.”
Managing Director of Debrecen Infrastructure Development Ferenc Kun highlighted in his presentation that HUF 5,000 billion of invested value have arrived in Debrecen in the past ten years. “We usually use a building to illustrate the amount of investment we are talking about. This is usually the Burj Khalifa, six of which could be built with HUF 5,000 billion or EUR 12,5 billion. We are now at Mol Campus. 106 Mol Campuses will come out of this amount, “ he explained.
Debrecen’s automotive industry investments also highlighted the development of industrial parks, such as the BMW plant being built in the Northwest Economic Zone. Mayor László Papp talked about the effects of automotive industry developments on the city in a panel discussion. He pointed out if not Debrecen, then another town in Eastern Hungary or somewhere in the Central European region will fill this position.
The mayor emphasised that ten years ago, they decided in favour of economic development to create quality jobs for young people. 21,000 new jobs were created in Debrecen, representing a serious challenge. László Papp highlighted that there are ten thousand more students in Debrecen than ten years ago, but in the short term, the city’s development is so dynamic that it is not possible to provide local labour for all positions.
“This will always be a task for us that must be continued, strengthened, and then in a few years, by the end of the 2020s, the beginning of the 2030s, a balance will be reached in which we will be able to say that we can operate the Debrecen economy with predominantly locally trained people, but of course there will always be foreigners in the Debrecen economy as well,” the mayor added. During the panel discussion, László Papp emphasised the importance of the Environmental Monitoring System and the sustainability efforts of the new plants, such as the construction of grey water technology.
Source and photo credit: debrecen.hu
