12 February 2013, Budapest

Good afternoon, Ladies and Gentlemen!

A respected welcome to you all, and especially to those who have come from the factory, and a distinguished welcome to the Mayor of Szentgotthárd. We are very happy to have a high-ranking Opel director as our guest once again. Thank you for your speech. Although, if I see rightly, there are perhaps ten years between us, and if I see correctly, not to my advantage, that is if youth qualifies as an advantage, and it does in the modern world. It is nevertheless important that we both belong to a generation that is linked by political experiences. If you have been so kind as to mention that you were 17 when Hungary held its first free elections, then let me also recall that of course we did all sorts of things in Hungary during that period, and I was present myself at a few important events, but we could only be sure that the changes could not be reversed, many were only convinced, after the fall of the Berlin wall. This is a good example of how, although the two countries do not border each other, German and Hungarian history is nevertheless closely connected.

Accordingly, the first though of what I would like to say – and I would like Mr. Koschnicke to take this thought home with him to Germany – is that Hungary is a place where the Germans are not only respected, but where we have a clear knowledge of German-Hungarian common fate. And cooperating with the Germans – be it in car manufacturing, state-of-the-art technology or any other activity including culture and higher education – has always presented a unique challenge and a serious opportunity for the Hungarians. Not to mention the fact that although politics in Hungary is performed, for some strange reason, by people with qualifications in humanities, economists, lawyers, and this can often be deceiving, the Hungarian elite has intrinsically a culture of engineering. And since German engineering culture is among the world's leaders, or perhaps even occupies first place, a society like ours with an essentially engineering culture always looks on Germany with respect, and we are happy to cooperate with Germany because in the investments that arrive in Hungary from Germany we also fundamentally see the arrival of engineering knowledge and high engineering standards to Hungary. This is an important fact.

The second thing I would like to say is that the press conference we are now holding, in addition to giving me an opportunity to meet the management and workers of the Szentgotthárd plant, is also important to us because we are dealing with an unparalleled record here. Investment projects are often realised in Hungary, including sometimes large ones, and especially by German companies. However, the fact that less than six months after such a huge investment as the Szentgotthárd plant inaugurated in the autumn of 2012, we have been able to agree on another project is unprecedented. The speed with which one investment project is followed by the next in Szentgotthárd is a Hungarian record. Not to mention the fact that the 100 new jobs which will be created are also worthy of note.

Ladies and Gentlemen!

The third thing I would like to tell you is that in 2013, the Hungarian Government is concentrating on ensuring a tangible start to economic growth in Hungary, and this requires investments, development projects and new workplaces. I could say, that we have succeeded in putting five things in order in Hungary, and we need to sort out the sixth in 2013. Government debt is moving in the right direction,  because it is decreasing. We are managing to continuously keep the budget deficit at under 3%. Our export-import balance is showing the second best result in Europe after Germany. Our current balance of payments is also fully in order, and although more slowly than we would like, but the employment rate is also improving: there are one-hundred and sixty thousand more people in employment today that two-and-a-half years ago. Only one thing remains that is making the bicycle wobble, and that's economic growth. And the task for the Hungarian economic administration in 2013 is for economic growth to begin once again in Hungary, and in a structure that is sustainable in years to come. And this requires permanent productivity. Hungary needs newer and newer investments with a long-term presence, such as Opel's latest project.

Ladies and Gentlemen!

There is regular political debate in Hungary on whether the Hungarians and other nations trust their own economies, and whether Hungarians and foreign investors view Hungary as dependable. This is a political debate that can primarily be followed on the television screen and on the pages of newspapers. Reality paints a clear picture. Reality tells us that where there is confidence, thee are investments. If, only six months after the inauguration of a huge factory that was capable of raising engineering technology to artistic heights, a company like Opel decides on another investment project, that means that those who are here know that the Hungarian economy is a dependable one, the Hungarian environment is calculable, and they have good reason to be confident. Confidence isn't a political slogan. Confidence means joint risk-taking. I must tell you that we have a joint responsibility for the Opel factory, the Mercedes factory, the Audi factory and for the other German brands that will hopefully be arriving to Hungary, and we have a joint responsibility for their success. Germans and Hungarians are sharing a joint risk with regard to the future. And this means that we both have confidence in the future.

Ladies and Gentlemen!

Finally, I would like to say a few words about Szentgotthárd, because this press conference was preceded by a lengthy discussion. And I don't wish to make a secret of the fact that we also have a few problems. Szentgotthárd is a beautiful town, anyone who's been there knows this. It has fantastic historical monuments, some of which we need to restore, and we are in talks with the Mayor about how this can be accomplished. But there is one problem with Szentgotthárd and its surroundings, and that it that it is relatively isolated with regard to the state of the Hungarian transport system. I wouldn't say it was hard to reach, but it isn't closely connected to the country's transport network. Of course, it has been snowing, and that’s an added difficulty, but our guests have told us that it certainly took a while for them to make their way up from Szentgotthárd to Budapest. This is obviously not an advantage to those who live there, but it is also not an advantage when it comes to investment and future economic development. For this reason, what we discussed earlier, Szentgotthárd's accessibility and its linking to the national main road and motorway system, and in general the state of roads 86 and 8, is of great importance. At tomorrow's cabinet meeting we will listen to a report on this issue, and the Government will speed up construction, which is partly already underway and partly in the planning phase, and I very much hope that at the next cabinet meeting, although we may not manage to come to a decision immediately and only prepare the decision for a vote at the following meeting, so I hope that after one or two cabinet meetings I will be able to announce that we have succeeded in speeding up construction works at these roads. I am conscious of the fact that one of Opel's unspoken requirements for further development is that we solve this problem. Of course our guests did not come forward with such clear wording, but we Hungarians know this full well. Look at Kecskemét or Győr: car industry centres only develop in places where the quality of transport is otherwise at a Western European level. It is important to have Western-European standard connections because Opel must fight with competitors even within itself; it has an internal competitive tendering system which decides what investments and development projects are realised. If Szentgotthárd wants to win, if Hungary wants to win, then we must resolve this issue whatever happens.

We are awaiting the moment when Opel's success in Hungary reaches the stage where we can also establish an innovation centre in Hungary. Other car manufacturers are already close to achieving this level, and I hope that Opel will also be capable  of establishing an innovation centre in Hungary. As we see it, Mr. Vice-President, the presence of such corporations in Hungary – I have already mentioned the other manufacturers – becomes irreversible if research and innovation units also appear in addition to production, and the Hungarian Government is doing everything possible to ensure that Opel also recognises this opportunity. This is not a question of financing, nor is it a question of government intent; if Opel has such plans then we could make this happen within the framework of our cooperation during the following 5-10 years.

And finally, I would like to repeat what I said at the inauguration of Opel's first development project  in Szentgotthárd: for the Germans to expand their factory of course required the owners of capital, who decided to develop here. It of course required the Directors of the Opel plant, who decided that the project would be realised here, but their decision was preceded by something else. And this was the productivity of the Hungarian workers at the Hungarian factory. The Directors of the German plant and Opel's owners could only have decided to develop the plant in Szentgotthárd because in the previous years the production results of the Hungarian workers there had created the basis for believing that it would be a rational decision to make further investments in Szentgotthárd. And therefore this development project, although the Hungarian Government may have a hand in it, as do the German owners of the factory, but essentially those we can thank for the fact that we can talk about further expansion of the plant at all today are primarily those who work in Szentgotthárd, the workers, the unskilled workers, and the plant's middle and upper management. Thank you very much for the performance you have provided! Thank you for not only securing your own livelihoods but also contributing to the success of the Hungarian economy through your productivity, and as such to the good performance of the whole Hungarian national economy. I will be happy to travel to Germany again and will be glad to hold further talks at Opel headquarters, and I very much hope that we will be able to conclude further agreements on new investment projects in the years to come.

Thank you very much for your patience and your kind attention.

(Prime Minister’s Office)