Balanced Year in Hungarian Investment Promotion

The year 2024 was balanced and successful for Hungary's investment promotion efforts, with partners arriving from 19 countries across three continents, record-breaking number of Hungarian projects, and a significant share of investments in the field of the highest added value activities, Government Commissioner and CEO of the Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency (HIPA), Mr. István Joó said in a television interview.

He emphasized that 2024 was the second-best year in HIPA's history. The agency attracted investments with a total volume of EUR 10.3 billion (HUF 4,000 billion), which - in his opinion - is a source of pride given the challenging international economic environment.

István Joó was of the view that the results reflect a balanced approach to investment promotion, with contributions from both Eastern and Western investors. He noted that HIPA supported more Hungarian projects in 2024 than ever before, while the highest value-added activities, such as research and development (R&D) and business service centers, also represent a significant proportion of the new investments.

According to the government commissioner, the Eastern Opening policy has also yielded results with the majority of investment volumes coming from Eastern countries. At the same time, Germany ranked first in terms of the number of projects, which is another testament to the balanced overall state of the investment promotion, he said.

While recent years have seen much focus on automotive manufacturing, electronics, and battery plant construction, the picture is far more complex. Last year, investments arrived in 18 sectors, including food processing, where HIPA strongly supported Hungarian projects, as well as construction, medical technology, pharmaceuticals, and information and communication technologies.

This diversity underscores HIPA's 2024 achievements and highlights the importance of supporting projects across as many sectors as possible, István Joó said, adding that of the 77 projects supported last year, 19 were in R&D and service centers. HIPA also expects existing investors in Hungary to expand their activities into R&D, whether in battery plants or automotive centers. This is a key goal, and in this context, it is a great success that by HIPA's largest-ever R&D project is carried out by Samsung SDI, in collaboration with Óbuda University.