Here’s how the government is helping Hungarian businesses expand abroad

The government continues to support the expansion of Hungarian companies abroad, as a means of strengthening economic cooperation with neighboring countries, Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, told Miercurea Ciuc (Csíkszereda) on Friday, in central Romania.

Szijjártó spoke at the groundbreaking ceremony for a new factory and office complex of the water industry company CONTROLSOFT-AUTOMATIKA. The investment of 486 million forints (1.3 million euros) is supported by a government grant of 290 million forints and will create 45 new jobs, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The new facility will underline the success of the government’s strategy to support Hungarian business investment abroad, he said. So far,

52 companies received government aid totaling 73 billion forints, which promoted investments worth 144 billion forints,

he said. As for Hungarian investors in Romania, the government has supported 15 companies with 25 billion forints to carry out projects worth 60 billion forints, he said.

Szijjártó said that Hungarian-Romanian relations have seen several records in recent years.

Hungarian investments in Romania, for example, recently exceeded 2 billion euros,

he said, adding that bilateral trade jumped 20% to almost €10 billion, of which €6 billion was generated by Hungarian exports.

The Hungarian communities in Romania and the Romanians living in Hungary are the basis of this success, he said. Meanwhile, the investment is another step in managing the challenges facing the two countries, Szijjártó said.

“The successes of the two countries in environmental protection would be difficult to imagine separately.”

Barna Tánczos, Romania’s Minister of Environment, Water Management and Forestry, called Hungary’s support for investment in Romania “extremely important” and a sign of even closer ties between the two countries . Water purification technology is particularly important because “Romania currently does not treat water to its true value,” he said.