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“Despite the global difficulties, the Hungarian automotive industry has been able to maintain its performance and remain a driving force of the domestic economy,” Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in Budapest last Tuesday.
According to the ministry’s statement, at the opening of the Automotive Industry Conference, the Minister first recalled the extraordinary challenges of recent years, which had a particularly serious impact on the European Union due to numerous erroneous political and economic decisions.
“Over the past years, Europe has lost its security, significantly deteriorated its competitiveness and practically completely lost its weight in world politics,” he listed. He also highlighted that this was the result of bad decisions that resulted in the prolongation of the war in Ukraine and that eliminated the previous economic growth model based on a combination of Western technologies and Eastern energy sources.
He explained that as a result, companies now have to pay twice, three or even four times more for energy in Europe than their competitors in the United States or China, and the European Commission can deliver the “final blow” by banning the import of Russian energy sources.
He also complained that the decisions in Brussels had politically isolated the EU from other major players in the world economy, but he called the re-ideologisation and re-politicisation of economic issues the most serious mistake.
“The European economy has paid for this, European companies have paid for it, and European people have certainly paid for it. After all, I think that the automotive industry is the number one and classic proof that there is no alternative to normal global cooperation,” he said.
“If this global cooperation is cut off based on political considerations, due to a political approach, then serious problems will arise. And the biggest loser of the political approach that ultimately makes global cooperation in the automotive industry more difficult is the European automotive industry,” he added.
Péter Szijjártó believed that the future of the automotive industry is undoubtedly electromobility, and although the speed of the transition may vary, the decisions have already been made, there is no turning back.
“But in this great technological revolution, the European automotive industry can only be successful as part of global cooperation,” he warned.
He then underlined that Hungary is an excellent example of how to make the automotive industry successful, as our country has become an important meeting point for Eastern and Western companies in the sector.
“There is no alternative to East-West cooperation in the automotive industry. If someone comes to Hungary, they see that large German and large Chinese factories are being built at the same time, and in a significant number of cases, next to each other,” he said.
“The closer German and Chinese companies cooperate in Hungary, the better for us. We do not want blocs, but normal global cooperation aimed at achieving mutual benefits,” he added.
The minister welcomed the fact that BMW will start production in Debrecen in September, while the connection of Mercedes’ two factories in Kecskemét will soon create the company’s largest plant outside China in a few months.
He also said that Audi is working at full capacity in Győr, Stellantis in Szentgotthárd is barely meeting orders, while Suzuki is carrying out a complex factory development project in Esztergom with government support.
He also pointed out that China’s BYD is building its first European factory in Hungary, and five of the ten largest electric battery manufacturers in the East have decided to set up in the country.
“I think it’s not an exaggeration to say that Hungary is in the Champions League without qualifying for the group stage, because we will soon have an annual capacity of more than one million cars, more than two million engines and the second largest electric battery production capacity in the world,” he listed.
He then pointed out that the production value of the domestic automotive industry was HUF 13,700 billion last year and the state has supported 244 major investments in the sector in the last eleven years.
Finally, he said that the government continues to see the automotive sector as a strategic ally and will continue to provide all the support it can to help these companies succeed here and make Hungary a success.
Source and photo credit:dehir.hu
