Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's Speech to mark the signing of the Strategic Partnership Agreement with Daimler AG on 9 November.

Welcome and Good Afternoon to you all!

It is with special respect that I welcome the directors, employees and engineers who have arrived from the plant in Kecskemét. It is usually only politicians who can be found in these halls, and it is good to sometimes welcome people from a completely different field and profession. This always reminds us of the fact that politics may be a good thing, but it does not in itself provide a living. For someone must also run the economy, and that is something that can best be run in the form of plants and factories. And the plants are kept alive by engineers, workers and directors, and so we are very glad that today, when this Agreement will be concluded, we may welcome not only Daimler's second-in-command from Germany, but with him those employees who have arrived from Kecskemét and who actually run the factory. Thank you very much for coming!

I have been making all sorts of notes while Vice-President Jäger made his speech, and I will now try to sort them so that not a single thought is lost in the process. I would first of all like to say that of course the agreement concluded between Daimler and the Hungarian Government is not independent of German-Hungarian relations. This is also true if we consider the fact that Daimler happens to be a global company. This whole agreement, which we will sign here today, has arisen from the idea that it is the feeling of the Hungarian Government that in the coming decades what we will require is not just that governments come to an agreement, but that this is instead the beginning of an era in which governments must also sign cooperation agreements with large, global corporations. With of course those whom we are able, and which global corporations can be closely integrated into the structure of the Hungarian economy, and into whose world Hungary too fits well. There will be a cooperation race throughout the world; over the next twenty-thirty years countries will compete against each other to determine which of them will be able to forge the closest relations with the large, global corporations that will be competitive in the future. By beginning this process, I believe Hungary is acquiring a competitive advantage, because we are perhaps a little ahead of many others in this respect. For this reason it is very important that we succeed in completing this process of concluding strategic cooperation agreements, and that when we have finished, it is clear that Hungary not only has friends in politics, and countries who regard us as a friend and with whom we have friendly relations, but that there are also a few among the outstanding players within the global economy who Hungary may regard as a friend and ally in future cooperation on the basis of strategic agreements it has concluded with them. It is for this reason that it is extremely important to us that Daimler should occupy a prominent place in this series of strategic agreements. Because everyone who knows even just a little about the world economy knows that of the global corporations there is one who in everyone's view has a bright future, and that is Daimler. So, this is the first thought I would have liked to share with you.

And now to the German dimension. Hungarian-German relations have a unique history, and a unique psychology. I do not wish to talk about any of this now. I would just like to recall that, as a child, it's true, even I lived through the period when the East Germans and the West Germans came to Lake Balaton to meet, and the Germans have always been grateful for the fact that even in communist times, for a weekend or a summer at Lake Balaton, we gave them the chance to put right what world history had corrupted. And then came the fall of the iron curtain, in which Hungary played quite an important role by allowing refugees to leave the country for the West; this is something our German friends always mention. And so German-Hungarian relations have a historical basis even in the recent past, but I must tell you that this is the past, and this in itself will not move us forward. The question, therefore, is this: is Hungary capable of forging a future-orientated relationship with Germany? The special character of German-Hungarian relations cannot simply mean that we recall these historical moments. And talk about the past rather than the future. For this reason it also very important for me personally, as one who has always been committed to German-Hungarian strategic cooperation, that Hungary should have a clear idea of the nature of future-orientated German-Hungarian relations for the upcoming decades. Relations that are built not only on the past, but also on the future.

Modern German-Hungarian relations that build on the future are epitomised by this Agreement, which we shall be signing today: the way in which Hungary is linked to German industry; how German industry is linked to Hungary; the way in which Germans bring technology and capital to Hungary and take part in vocational training, increasing the technical quality of the Hungarian economy and the quality of human capital, and in this way providing Hungary with the opportunity to link to the world's highest level of technology while also being successful as investors, since they will realise profits in Hungary. This is the kind of "win-win" situation in which both the Germans and the Hungarians have a simultaneous interest. And so all I wanted to say with this is that in addition to the past, there is also a source, a linking force, a cement of German-Hungarian relations that is derived from the future. And this is the establishment and long-term presence of the German manufacturing industry in Hungary, and the role played by Germany in the modernisation of the Hungarian economy. It is no accident that the Hungarian economic model that we began to establish following the change of government links practically seamlessly to the German economy. I only wish to mention two things now with regard to this Hungarian model. The first is that the economy we are currently building is a work-based economy. The essence of a work-based economy is that there should be work and work opportunities that are as far as possible at the highest technological level of the global economic competition. In this sense, cooperation with Daimler is extremely welcome; and the second is that we also view industrial production as being the backbone of the Hungarian national economy in the long term.

It is now that I must way a few words about the fact that the opportunity for concluding this Strategic Agreement may partly be found in the fact that Daimler and Hungary have a similar view regarding the future of Europe. During our discussions with the Vice-President, we recalled what the fashionable way of thinking was for example ten years ago in European economic politics. When I was first Prime Minister, then I too was able to bring forth my memories about the fact that ten years earlier, people in the European economy talked about the fact that the future isn't in industry and manufacturing; if you have money, then you should invest it in the financial sector, not the industrial sector; if you are looking for a good return, then you should look at the service sector. This was the fashionable way of thinking in Europe. I think this is now over. This is yesterday's fashion and now increasingly those companies are coming to the forefront who think along the lines that the future of the European economy is unimaginable without significant industrial capacities and production capacities. We Hungarians also think in this way, the Hungarian Government also thinks in this way, and it also happens to be what the Germans who actually run these factories think. And so both of us are convinced that if Europe wants to remain competitive, then we in Europe need industrial production centres, and that Hungary, through German-Hungarian cooperation, can become a modern industrial and production centre that is capable of generating a reliable income in the long term.

And now, let me also say a few words about Kecskemét. First of all, I believe that the citizens of Hungary owe the people of Kecskemát and the Mayor of Kecskemét a debt of gratitude. Because the realisation of this project and the fact that we are able to sign a strategic agreement today and are now able to plant the future together, something the Vice-President also referred to earlier, has only become possible because a city has undertaken all the work and effort that is related to the establishment of such a huge, global company in Hungary. It didn't just undertake this work; it has done a great job of it. And now that the German-Hungarian cooperation has been realised, it runs the city in such a way that the Germans who have come here are now planning their futures in Hungary. And so the Mayor of the City of Kecskemét personally, and in addition every single citizen of Kecskemét, has contributed much to this success. Because if Daimler decides to remain in Hungary for the long term, then this decision will have been significantly influenced by whether Kecskemét has received them well, whether the people of Kecskemét have welcomed and accepted the German engineers, whether German families have been incorporated into the community, whether the German families who work here feel that they are at home. And this depends on the most part on the city's inhabitants and the city's administration. I believe that Kecskemét – in addition to the fact that of course it has also gained certain advantages with the establishment of this huge factory there – has done the whole country a great service by being an exceptional host to Daimler and Mercedes.

The third thing I would like to mention, Ladies and Gentlemen, is that a very important arena of German-Hungarian economic cooperation in modern industrial manufacturing is the level of quality of the factories in question. It is a good thing that Madam Chancellor and I occasionally meet; the Hungarian Foreign Minister is at present meeting with the German Foreign Minister at the Hungarian-German Forum in Germany and saying all sorts of promising things about the relationship between the two countries. It is also important that we are about to sign a strategic agreement here today. But the most important thing is whether Hungarian and German engineers cooperate in day-to-day life, and whether the German families cooperate with the Hungarian families. Because if we are serious about the fact that German and Hungarian industry will cooperate increasingly closely in future – and the Hungarian Government is very serious about this – then it will only work if this cooperation is also established at an everyday, family and engineer level. And once again, the City of Kecskemét has a very important role to play in this. This is one of the reasons why vocational training is so important. I shall seize the opportunity with regard to what we have discussed this afternoon and make it a reality that with regard to the shaping of the vocational education system – and I am sure you all know how great a struggle the introduction of the new vocational training system was here in Hungary – that now that the new system has begun to operate, we should bring as many practicing teachers of the German vocational system over to Hungary for longer or shorter periods so that their feedback can help us recognise what are those details of the introduction of the German model in Hungary that may require further change and improvement. In addition to cooperation in manufacturing, we also plan to establish cooperation between practical experts from the Hungarian and German vocational training systems, and we shall be asking the help of both Daimler and Baden-Württemberg in this regard. This is important to us. Think back on the hard debate that the Government and I had to carry on for months when we said that the old system of training professionals is incapable of serving the requirements of the modern global economy, and that we must fundamentally change the system of vocational training in Hungary. This obviously prejudiced the interests of certain groups, but it is the interests of the children, the students, that is most important, and if we wish to raise good young adults who are capable of gaining employment at a world class level, then the vocational training system cannot remain as it was, and we began modernising the Hungarian system along the lines of the German model. We have made much progress on this issue, but are now awaiting further, supplementary help not from the system or at a legislative level, but now rather at a practical, vocational training activities level.

Ladies and Gentlemen!

There is one final thought that I would like to share with you. Hungarian ears find it hard to discern the difference. Mr. Vice-President used the terms Daimler and Mercedes in a separate and well-defined manner. This is important, because it is a Mercedes factory that operates in Kecskemét, but we are signing this Agreement with Daimler. We are usually not aware of this in Hungary, and so it is perhaps right for me to tell you that Daimler is much more than Mercedes. Of course Mercedes may be the most determinative and well known brand, product and so forth of Daimler, which is a huge, global company. But Daimler doesn't only produce cars; it has a much wider industrial spectrum. And we are signing this Agreement today not with Mercedes, but with Daimler – specifically with Daimler – in the interests of using this Agreement to open new doors so that in addition to Mercedes and the production of cars, we may begin to find opportunities for cooperation within the other fields belonging to Daimler's industrial spectrum. We are therefore signing this Strategic Agreement not with Mercedes, but with Daimler, who is one level above Mercedes, and so this Agreement will indeed open up new industrial opportunities for Hungary. I am grateful to Mr. Vice-President and I am grateful to the Directors of the plant in Kecskemét that we may have the opportunity of signing this Agreement here today.

Thank you for you attention!

(Prime Minister’s Office)