Top achieving foreign and local players were recognized in nine categories at the annual ‘Investors of the Year Awards’ gala in the Museum of fine Arts by the Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency (HIPA) to celebrate the results of 2023, which was yet another record year in the history of Hungarian investment promotion. The prizes were presented by HIPA CEO István Joó and HIPA Deputy CEO Rita Szép-Tüske.
According to HIPA, the ‘Investors of the Year’ ceremony is the absolute highlight in its event calendar as it recognizes the highest achieving members of the local investor community. The award categories remained the same compared to last year, so, this time around nine winners were announced as well.
A statement by the agency highlights that the year 2023 certainly gave reason to celebrate. The previous investment volume record set in 2022 was doubled to surpass the EUR 13 billion mark, and the number of newly created jobs (19,692) also reached an all-time high.
The extraordinary investor activity was mainly due to the engagement of Asian stakeholders that committed themselves to implement nearly 82% of capital investments and two thirds of new jobs. China’s dominance was of particular importance given that the Asian powerhouse alone accounted for an investment volume of over EUR 7.6 billion.
“Taking stock of the 2023 results also provides an opportunity to reflect on the 10-year long operation of HIPA and our results achieved in the past decade. Between January 1, 2014 and 31 December 2023, there were up to 2,123 HIPA-guided projects in value of some EUR 49 bn to create over 150,000 new jobs. These results have been undoubtedly of transformative nature for the Hungarian economy,” István Joó said.
Two Chinese companies (BYD, CPMC) were awarded in the newcomer investor and the strategic investment categories. On the other hand, a Korean (Samsung SDI) and a Japanese (Magyar Suzuki Plc.) investor were also recognized, raising the total number of Eastern winners to four. The former delivered another historic achievement by announcing the largest-ever R&D project in Hungary in value of EUR 61.8 million. Suzuki earned a lifetime award for its tremendous contribution to the national economy for over three decades.
Research and upskilling remained in focus in 2023 as well, with up to ten R&D projects receiving a grant to create 810 new high-added value jobs, and seven training programs benefiting nearly 2,500 employees.
The largest training program and the most innovative product investment could both be linked to German companies. Hungarian stakeholders, in turn, were recognized in the supplier and the industrial park category.
HIPA’s Western partners were active in terms of the number of projects in particular. Germany delivered the most of them (18), an equivalent to every fourth, whereas the United States closed 8 deals. The two countries combined were responsible for around 20% of all new jobs.
As to the geographic distribution of investments, István Joó pointed out that “our job is replicate in the southern regions of the country what has been managed to achieve in Eastern Hungary: the examples of Debrecen, Nyíregyháza and Miskolc showcase that nothing is impossible if you keep building systematically and work consistently.
The sectoral FDI landscape hasn’t changed a bit compared to recent years. Automotive and electronics continue to prevail. This dominance is reflected in the composition of the awardees as five winners operate in either of those sectors.”


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