27 November 2012, Budapest

Good Morning, Ladies and Gentlemen! Welcome, Mr. Director and our dear guests from the factory!

Thank you very much for being here with us today. Let me first of all join the Director in thanking the people of Rácalmás and Dunaújváros, because the fact that Hankook and the Government of Hungary are signing a Strategic Cooperation Agreement today is also proof of the fact that the people of Rácalmás and Dunaújváros are doing an excellent job at the factory, and have successful developed cooperation with a global company that has arrived from very far away and from a different work culture.

Ladies and Gentlemen!

Prior to this press conference we held a meeting with the Director of the company at which the most important lesson for me was what the Director has already mentioned, that the Hungarian workers, including those involved in physical labour such as the unskilled workers, the trained workers and skilled labourers, and also the middle and upper management have learned very rapidly and were very quick to adapt to the factory's work culture. This is a key issue because if Hungary would like to become a production centre, and as today shows, we are moving towards that goal, then the Hungarian workforce must be flexible, quick to learn and capable of adapting, and the history of this factory, of Hankook in Hungary, assures us that Hungarian workers are in possession of this knowledge, learning ability and flexibility. When all is said and done it is of course governments who devise economic strategies, and it is of course those with capital who invest, but success, economic success, is in actuality primarily down to the professionals who work at the factory. It would seem that Hungary can feel safe in this regard, and when we sign agreements with German, American, Japanese or Korean companies a returning element is always the fact that the Hungarian workforce is flexible, is quick to learn and is capable of taking over the operation of the factory very rapidly. What the Director mentioned with regard to the fact that they are able to continuously decrease the number of Koreans working at the factory and replace them with Hungarian employees, means that the Hungarians have learnt everything they need to, and have acquired the knowledge and experience that the Korean employees arrived here with. I think this is an important fact to note and is an excellent sign with regard to the future of the Hungarian economy.

Especially in view of the fact that today's agreement is also about us having closed the book on a stage in our economic history – most of you are very young and don't remember the political and economic debates of the early nineteen nineties, so I will recall them for you now; in the early nineties, the debate in Parliament, and I myself was already a part of them, was about whether Hungary should become a production centre or instead a financial and service centre. These are of course not mutually exclusive things, but in which direction the balance is weighted is important. And until very recently governments were usually of the opinion that Hungary should operate as a kind of financial service centre, and the opinion that it could also be a production centre never had a majority. This changed in 2010, and we clearly and openly declared that Hungary must become one of Europe's production centres, because if we do not become a production centre then we will be unable to prepare for the world which it our belief will become apparent before our eyes following the current crisis. The fact that this idea is not unsubstantiated is clearly confirmed by what the company's respected Director said a little earlier, which was this (I wrote it down for myself): Hankook is examining short-term possibilities for increasing capacity. In other words, this means that they are examining the possibility of further developing and expanding their Hungarian capacity. And development and increasing capacity is something that is only undertaken in places where industrial production clearly has a culture, where it is supported, and where industrial capital feels secure.

Ladies and Gentlemen!

Let me also take this opportunity to draw your attention to the fact that this is a unique corporation. There are no similar Hankook corporations anywhere in Europe. This is the other thing that the Director mentioned, and it is also important to us, plays a central role in our policy and provides the main emphasis of the whole issue; he said that the company regards Hungary as a bridgehead. The more corporations regard Hungary as a bridgehead, the greater the opportunity that, if successful, they will also perform their expansion and production expansion in Hungary, which means that more Hungarian families will find their security by linking to these companies, either by working there or through suppliers. It is also important for us, Ladies and Gentlemen, that we may view Korea as a friend. It is without doubt true that our business cooperation is facilitated by the fact there is a historically good cooperation between Korea and Hungary. Our feelings are decidedly close and amicable. When I asked the Director what could make Hungary even more attractive to foreign investment in addition to production – meaning tax benefits, the Széchényi program and several other things are linked to production, but what is it over and above production that a foreign investor who arrives in Hungary might need – he emphasised the fact that although secondary school English teaching in Budapest is excellent, we have no world class English language higher education institution, primarily in relation to business life. Excuse my use of the English term, but we have no real business school, English language business school that could otherwise be a competitive alternative to Western European or American universities for the children of people working here. The Government has thought of this issue before. We will now speed up this process in the interests of establishing a world class English language business school in Budapest as soon as possible using both private and state capital, because this may have a direct effect on Hungary's capability to attract capital.

Ladies and Gentlemen!

I have stated and repeated many times: the Hungarian Government views those foreign investors who arrive in Hungary, quickly take over the market, rake in benefits, rake in their first profits, and then move on, in a different light; we have no business with such investors, and would perhaps be happier if they did not appear. And then there are those investors of whom and of whose business policy it is immediately clear that the method and way in which they link into the operation of the national economy confirms the opinion and assumption that they wish to use Hungary as a bridgehead, and so will remain with us in the long term.

Well, Ladies and Gentlemen!

It is with companies like these that we conclude Strategic Cooperation Agreements, and we are grateful to the management of Hankook that by signing this agreement it is clearly and openly planning to continue to operate as a bridgehead in Hungary.

Ladies and Gentlemen!

If you will allow me, I would like to draw your attention to one or two circumstances that may perhaps seem like minor details, but are important from the point of view of our economic policy. The first is that Hankook takes part in the training of Hungarian workers. It is an exaggeration, but only a slight exaggeration, to state that by cooperating with Hungarian secondary schools Hankook is in essence training those workers who it will later need in its factory. It not only accepts and absorbs the excellent professionals trained by the Hungarian state, but it also itself takes part in their targeted vocational training. Through this, they help in assuring that people who leave secondary school will find a job and may feel secure that they will be able to make use of what they have learnt in school in real life, in other words that they will be able to make a living from it. For this reason we are most grateful to the Director for having always supported the idea that Hankook should not just manufacture, but should also participate in education in Hungary.
This strategic Agreement is therefore about production development; we will deal with the issues of innovation and research and development separately. Hankook makes no secret of the fact – and the Director also mentioned this in passing – that it would like to develop into the world's best tire-manufacturing company, and this is something that cannot be achieved without innovation and research & development, and so we hope that there will be room for Hungary in Hankook's future plans for research and development, and that we may soon see design and development engineers in the employment of Hankook in Hungary. The Agreement also includes the issue of training. We hope that Hankook will continue and further develop its good habit of being involved in the organisation of the Hungarian education system.

We have also discussed the issue of so-called social responsibility with the Directors of Hankook. This is a fashionable topic throughout the world these days. It involves the idea of, in addition to paying taxes, with which it contributes to the public good, what concrete cooperative relationship can a very significant, international company that creates large profit develop with non-governmental organisations operating within the fields of sport, culture and community life. I have today become assured of the fact that Hankook views assuming social responsibility as an important issue, and I very much hope that in addition to those living locally, the whole of Hungary will be able to enjoy the advantages of this responsible way of thinking. In closing, I must say that the Government of Hungary is proud to be able to sign an agreement with a Korean company. We are proud to have the opportunity to conclude an agreement with a Korean company of global proportions, and with a company that has ambitions: it wishes not only to retain its position in the world economy, but wants to develop and grow, and we hope that it will take us, the Hungarians, with it into this future, where it will be possible to develop and grow, and so increasing numbers of Hungarians will be able to find their living, their salary, their security and their future in the Hungarian Hankook factory or one of its future plants.

Thank you very much for your kind attention!

(Prime Minister's Office)