Minister for National Economy Mihály Varga and Ericsson's Head of Customer Unit Central Europe Thomas Jul signed a Strategic Cooperation Agreement on Wednesday in Budapest at Ericsson Hungary's Research and Development Centre.

Ericsson operates the largest research and development division within the Hungarian info-communications sector, and after signing the agreement the company announced that it would be realising new development projects in Hungary and creating more jobs. The new projects, which would be realised in Budapest, are generally related to Cloud services and Big Data analysis.

Minister for National Economy Mihály Varga praised Ericsson's role in Hungarian technological development, supporting research and training activities, and the definitive role the company has played in Hungary over the past decades.

Strategic cooperation is especially important to Hungary, as it stresses the linking of Hungarian education, research, development and innovation to practical realisation and industrial application.

"For innovation to really be successful in a country and for it to actually facilitate economic growth requires economic openness, financial stability and flexible regulations", the Minister stressed.
"The Hungarian Government has already realised budget stability and has completed the reforms required for the competitive strengthening of the economy, in addition to which it is also ready to take the necessary steps to increase competitiveness within the fields of industrial policy and regulation. The budget deficit is stable at below 3 percent, government debt is continuously decreasing, and the country has exited the excessive deficit procedure", he pointed out.

The Government's active investment policy aims to assure a more favourable environment both for enterprises already present in Hungary and for new investors searching for potential sites. The Government's goal is for Hungarian production to gradually shift to the manufacturing of products with increasing higher added value, the Minister stressed.
Thomas Jul confirmed that Ericsson would continue to assure Hungary a prominent role in its global strategy.

Ericsson currently employs 1700 people in Hungary, of whom 1200 work in research and development, with the remaining 500 performing engineering and business development services. 100 of the company's Hungarian employees have PhDs and Ericsson's experts have applied for a total of 550 patents. The Hungarian division is Ericsson's second largest research and development centre in Europe, in addition to which the company finances two research laboratories at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, and two at the Eötvös Loránd University.

(Ministry for National Economy)