Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's Speech at the Inauguration of Knorr-Bremse Braking Systems Limited's New Factory
When I was walking towards the curtain here I suddenly thought I was going to vote. Good Afternoon, Ladies and Gentlemen! This goes to show that just ten days before the elections, one isn't in full control of one's thoughts. Despite this, please allow me to follow the rules of common sense and decorum, while at the same time expressing my amicable feelings, and greet with respect and affection Chairman Thiele [Mr. Heinz Herman Thiele, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Knorr-Bremse Group], who has indeed honoured us by being with us here today. It is with similar respect that I would like to greet CEO István Lepsényi [President and CEO of Knorr-Bremse Braking Systems Limited], with whom the Hungarian Government has developed an excellent level of professional cooperation in recent years.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Let me continue from where our parliamentary candidate left off. It is a small miracle, or at the very least a brilliant achievement, that a traditionally agricultural city like yours has, thanks to good city leadership, understanding the future and a politics that aims to forge friendships and alliances, become one of the industrial centres of the 21st century, a real Hungarian industrial centre. This is a fantastic achievement. Please allow me to first and foremost congratulate the people of Kecskemét. I would like to quietly add that the Hungarian Government has also done its best to contribute a little something. We have removed 17 billion forints in debt from the city's shoulders and during the past four years we have supported the realisation of 1,136 programmes with total funding of 109 billion forints. These have all served the development of the city and the surrounding area. So we have taken away 17 billion forints in debt and brought 109 billion in funding. Mr. Thiele can I am sure confirm that deals that are as good as the one Kecskemét has made with the current Hungarian Government are rare even in Germany.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I feel it is important to state that this factory is a German factory. I have always believed that one can learn something from everybody, and that in fact clever people do their best to learn something from everyone. What I have learned from the Germans is important. We all remember the hopeless situation that Germany was in following the Second World War and the huge energies it mobilised to enable itself to stay afloat. And not just to stay afloat but to win the acknowledgement and respect of the world and occupy its position among the world's great nations, the position it deserves in view of its talent and diligence. Many have thought long and hard on the secret to Germany's success. Everyone has their own explanation, and so do I. I think the key is self-respect. A nation that finds itself in a difficult situation can only achieve success and stand back up again if it maintains its self respect deep inside - if it cannot do so otherwise, then it must do so deep inside. We Hungarians would do well to understand this, Ladies and Gentlemen, and if we look back on the years we have left behind us then the current successes of Hungary can also not be explained by anything other than by the fact that until the very last moment we retained our capability of wanting to keep to what we had undertaken, of not wanting to prove to be worse than anyone else, of wanting to prove that we are capable of performing at a level that can compete with any country in the world.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Chairman Thiele said something very important a little earlier, which provides us with a glimpse of the future, a future that is otherwise not easy and will involve struggle. He said that this factory has been constructed with exemplary speed. We are proud of this fact. During the past four years, Hungary's greatest competitive advantage both in politics and in the economy has been speed. The nation was not just united for a single election day, but it remained united because it understood that we must stay together to be successful and if we want to ward off the economic crisis, or protect our homeland from the greatest Danube flood in history, if that is what is required. Speed, Chairman Thiele said, but he also added that this record would be a short-lived one, because a factory in China would soon be constructed even more rapidly. This makes it very clear to us Hungarians that we cannot be content with the performance we have achieved so far, because the world holds new challenges for us and we must be faster than everyone else. Faster even than those who prove to be faster than us today.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
This is the competitive challenge that we Hungarians must understand and this is why we should not be content with what we have already achieved, but should set more and more objectives for ourselves and enter more and more competitions. I would like to tell you that I owe the Knorr-Bremse Group a personal debt of gratitude. This gratitude dates back to 1999 and the reason for it, and you most probably do not remember because the comings and goings of everyday life tend to erase things like this from people's memories, but I remember it well; in 1999, Hungary was struggling with the dilemma that although we had succeeded in attracting the production capacities of a few well-know western factories to Hungary, would we forever remain factory line workers and hired hands and have an industry based on a culture of assembling parts; would things remain like this, or are we capable of achieving higher, more sophisticated positions that require more knowledge and training, and the greater profits that go with them? And at the end of the 1990s there was no indication that this assembly line Hungary would ever become a Hungary that was capable of being among the world's leaders in research, technology and development. And this was the moment when Knorr-Bremse decided to establish a research and development centre in Budapest, and with that, provided an example to the Hungarian Government. It showed us what we need to strive for; what investments, areas of cooperation and projects Hungary requires to be able to move forward in the international competition. I am grateful to Knorr-Bremse for having not simply established a research and development centre in Hungary, but for this having served as a torch to light the path that Hungarian industrial politics should follow and which, to the best of our ability and if it has depended on us, we have always followed ever since.
And now, Ladies and Gentlemen, please allow me to share with you the fact that when I was preparing to come here today I also had a look at the Knorr-Bremse website – it has a Hungarian version too – where I found the sentence "more than one billion people put their trust in Knorr-Bremse systems every day". One billion! That's every seventh person on the planet! We are here at the inauguration of a factory that manufactures a product in which every seventh person in the world puts their trust each and every day. I would like to congratulate Mr. Thiele, the directors of Knorr-Bremse and the factory's Hungarian employees – this is a huge responsibility.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is perhaps also worth mentioning what Mr. Thiele brought here to Hungary during the years of the regime change, when Knorr-Bremse took over the management of the factory in Kecskemét, which had existed previously. It was called the Szerszámipari Művek ['Industrial Tool Works']. Knorr-Bremse had been cooperating with this Hungarian company since 1969; and so we can see that an old tradition received a modern form as a result of the investments realised here. This clearly shows that whatever our past may be like, and it is not always spotless, and is in fact never without fault, but there is always something in it that it is worth taking along with us for the future.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
In closing, I would like to quote for you another sentence that I found on the company's website, which goes like this: "The German company chose Kecskemét because of the uniformly high quality of its series manufactured products". If I translate that into everyday language what it means is that the Hungarian workers employed in Kecskemét are capable of producing series manufactured products to a uniformly high standard of quality. And of course our acknowledgements in this regard go to Mr. Thiele and to the directors of the company, but this investment could not have come about here in Kecskemét without our workforce. Without those Hungarian workers who in previous years have proven that they are capable of producing series manufactured products at a uniformly high level of quality that can compete with any country in the world. In other words, the workers here in Kecskemét have themselves to thank for this opportunity, they have worked hard so that the next investment, which is always a difficult question for a company of this size, could be realised right here in Kecskemét. I think that the workers have every right to be proud of themselves and we Hungarians have every reason to be proud of Hungary's workers.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
When speaking about the future, I make no secret of the challenges ahead. We must work hard next year and we must work hard for the future, but the achievement represented by this factory is a source of encouragement for the future. What it tells us, Ladies and Gentlemen, is that the Hungarians are capable of holding their own in the competition and will also be capable achieving the highest state-of-the-art level of quality with their work here in future years and decades.
Please allow me to once again congratulate Chairman Thiele and the directors of the factory, and to especially thank them not just for the fact, but for the message and encouragement expressed by the fact, as we heard earlier from Chairman Thiele, that this factory was designed by Hungarians and its construction was entrusted to Hungarians, and as such for having sent a message to everybody that world class corporations that belong among the world's largest industrial powers have confidence in Hungary, have confidence in Hungarian enterprises and have confidence in Hungarian workers and the quality of their work. Please allow me to once again express my appreciation to Chairman Thiele, thank Mr. Lepsényi for his cooperation and wish the factory's workers and their families much strength and good health.
Thank you for your attention.
(Prime Minister’s Office)
