21 November 2012, Budapest

Good Afternoon, Ladies and Gentlemen!

Today, it is once again our great pleasure to welcome most respected guests here in the Hungarian Parliament building. The representatives of the Suzuki factory have been holding talks with the Hungarian Government. The apropos for these discussions is that the Hungarian Government and Suzuki will today be concluding a long-term strategic agreement, as we call them in Hungarian. First of all, as I always do, let me tell you all that we are concluding these long-term agreements because we have a clear economic vision. If we speak immodestly, which may not be recommended, but sometimes happens, then we call this a Hungarian economic model; if we are a little more modest, then we say that it is a unique Hungarian solution to the European crisis. It is the strong belief of the Hungarian Government that in the coming decade the successful countries will be the ones who conclude the most agreements, the most agreements that are favourable to them. And since the world is going to change, and from certain aspects the change that has begun previously will continue, meaning that the players in world politics will be not only states, but also large, global corporations, then the question of which countries are capable of concluding long-term agreements with global companies will have a significant effect on their competitiveness or competitive disadvantage. Those who are successful and are capable of integrating several such companies into their national economies will have an increased chance of being a successful country. Those who fail to do so, or do not bother with the issue, or are not successful in the endeavour, will move in the opposite direction, falling further back instead of running forwards. This is why Hungary is concluding strategic agreements with those large, international companies with whom we think, or with whom based on existing cooperation we believe, will not only be capable of serving their own interests and profit interests well, but also the interests of the Hungarian economy, and in essence the interests of the Hungarian people.

The second thing I would like to tell you is that I will naturally be signing the agreement with the representatives of the Suzuki factory, and their future investments in Hungary will also require their approval, but as the leader of the Hungarian Government I would like to tell you that alone, the management of the Suzuki factory would not be in a position to sign an agreement with the Government if they did not have behind them the success that they have already presented over the past twenty to twenty-two years, and which we all know full well. In other words, the Suzuki factory has become one of the prides of Hungary, the investors have also found what they were expecting, Hungary has also done well, and so there is a basis for this agreement. But we are talking not only about the investors, but also about the factory's workers, because a factory is not successful only because investors have put their money in the right place, but also because the workers in the factory are doing a good job. And so, when we conclude this agreement with the directors of the Suzuki factory a little later, I would like the workers at the Suzuki factory in Esztergom – and I would ask that those present pass on my kind regards and these words to them – I would like the people who work at the Suzuki factory to know that during the past twenty years they have been performing at such a high level and have done such a good job, that they have laid the foundations for a long-term strategic partnership agreement between the Suzuki factory and Hungary. Accordingly, this agreement includes not only our acknowledgement of our Japanese partners, but also our appreciation of the workers in Esztergom.

Ladies and Gentlemen!

I do not wish to conceal the fact that the agreement with Suzuki is also personally gratifying. No matter how much things may be about business, about investments and about production, we are all human and we also have personal feelings and emotions. The Hungarian people have a strong personal attachment to the Suzuki factory, and this stems from the fact that when communism collapsed and it was impossible to know what would happen in Hungary, not even many in Hungary knew, let alone in other countries around the world, and it was unclear what would happen to Hungary, then there were a few factories, and one of them happened to be Suzuki, who came to Hungary and invested. With this, they not only created jobs in Hungary, but also created trust towards Hungary throughout the whole international economic sphere. This is something that we rarely talk about, because we talk more about investments and profit, but we should note that Suzuki has played an exemplary role in Hungarian history since 1990, because it helped to enable us to integrate the post-Comecon Hungarian economy based on trust, and to begin conforming it to the new Western European and global economic order. For this reason – we rarely say this out loud, but it is true – doors open more easily before Suzuki and agreements are concluded more easily with the Suzuki factory. Mutual trust is a positive energy within this relationship that bears fruit in both everyday life and in business. The fact that the Suzuki factory could use the slogan "Our Car" for its product perfectly expresses everything I have spoken of earlier, and the people of Hungary did not take this light-heartedly, but instead said yes, Suzuki really is our car. If I take a step further back and view the Suzuki factory's first investment in Hungary from a wider perspective, then this investment bore with it no less of a message than that you too, or if you prefer, we also, can be successful; you are also capable of manufacturing a car; you too are capable of building a car that you can sell in any corner of the globe, and you too are capable of making a car that an immensely successful corporation like Suzuki is happy to call its own. You Hungarians can make it too. This is the message the Japanese sent us, and they also helped us achieve it. And so for this reason it is understandable that this agreement is especially close to our hearts.

In addition, the presence of the Japanese in Hungary is another source of encouragement, namely because Japan was in an awful state following the Second World War. It was a country that had been largely destroyed; a country that had lost its hope for the future, and yet within a few years it managed to grow into one of the most advanced industrial powers in the world, not through speculation, but through hard work. This is also an encouragement for Hungary, and the presence of every Japanese company in Hungary strengthens the kind of self-confidence that I am talking about now. This is why I am very happy that we conducted a successful series of discussions in Japan a few days ago with the aim of having more Japanese investors come to Hungary. And of course we shouldn't count our chickens before they're hatched, but it would seem that significant new Japanese investors will be arriving in Hungary within the next year or two.

Ladies and Gentlemen!

During today's talks, I outlined to the representatives of the Suzuki factory the Hungarian economic model that directs the decisions of Hungarian economic policy, and which provides the framework for understanding these decisions. I repeated what I have already told you on previous occasions, that the support of production investments enjoys top priority within Hungarian economic policy because in the coming decade, national economies may only be built through work. And work requires a workplace, and a workplace needs to provide meaningful work opportunities, and for this reason the Hungarian Government provides an advantage when establishing the tax system and when elaborating investment policy to projects that involve industrial production. Other sectors are of course also important, but industrial production enjoys an advantage before all others, and the Suzuki factory is an excellent example of this.

Ladies and Gentlemen!

And now, let me take the opportunity to report on some concrete issues that we touched on during today's meeting. The first point is that the talks were conducted in good spirits, because two important announcements were made yesterday and today with regard to the auto industry. To be precise, two car industry suppliers announced that they are expanding their operations, both with the creation of fifty new jobs each. One of these projects involves the expansion of Suzuki's supplier base. This was precisely the first topic that we touched on. According to our calculations and based on estimates, the proportion of Suzuki's Hungarian suppliers is around 30 percent, and we have just agreed that we will increase this ratio within the upcoming period. The other thing we touched on, since Japan's Ambassador to Hungary was also present at the meeting, is that Hungary will continue to support the free trade agreement between the European Union and Japan, which is in fact something we have been encouraging for some time, and have argued determinedly in favour of at every prime ministers' summit in Brussels. The third thing we talked about was the fact that the public procurement system, which went through an overhaul last year, has created a legislative framework that is especially favourable with regard to the distribution of Suzuki motor vehicles that are produced in Hungary, and we hope that some of the factory's products will soon appear among the winners of public procurement tenders. We discussed innovation and research & development activities. We would be pleased if the Suzuki factory increased the operations of its R&D section. What we can add to this is the building of the new bridge at Komárom, on which we have come to an agreement with the Prime Minister of Slovakia, and with relation to which, based on the recommendations of the Suzuki factory, we have increased the bridge's capacity in view of the fact that we have calculated the volume of freight traffic it will have to accommodate and found that the width of the bridge should be increased compared to the original plans. This was a recommendation that came specifically from the Suzuki factory, and which the Hungarian Government accepted, after which we came to a successful agreement with Slovakia on the bridge's new parameters. Meaning that the Suzuki factory will be able to use the new bridge, and it will be suitable for its freight transport requirements. We also agreed on the connection to the M1 motorway. Discussions regarding this had also been held on previous occasions. The Government has now come to a decision: we will construct a new section of road to connect to the M1 motorway, and preliminary studies are already underway, including impact assessment studies. We are in the planning phase, and I hope that construction may begin soon.

Ladies and Gentlemen!

In closing, please allow me to thank the leading European representatives of the Suzuki factory, the Hungarian directors of the Suzuki factory, its Japanese and Hungarian directors, for having taken part in today's talks. Please allow me, partly in the interests of Hungary, but irrespectively of Hungarian interests, to wish your homeland and the Suzuki factory heartfelt success, good strength, health, and I could perhaps even say that I wish us much joint success in the coming years!

It is an honour that I may sign this agreement in the name of the Hungarian Government.

(Prime Minister's Office)