According to the announcement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Head of the Ministry participated in the announcement of the establishment of the digital research and development center “Linde Gáz Magyarország Zrt” in Budapest. The facility aims to provide solutions to make manufacturing plants sustainable and profitable. Following a HUF 5 billion state-backed project of HUF 970 million, the German-owned company will hire twenty-five highly educated employees in the first round.
In his speech, the Secretary of State emphasized that during the pandemic, things became critical from moment to moment that most of them did not know existed before. As he said, this is medical oxygen, whose supply hasn’t been cut off all the time, thanks in part to Linde.
“Thus, patients in Hungary were not left without care, unlike in some countries, even stronger or richer than ours,” he said.
Péter Szijjártó stated that 2020 and in some respects 2021 became the “year of the Great Recession” for the global economy. He noted that the government’s task is to avoid this and make Hungary one of the winners in the new global economic era.
He added that this was a success, and one of the most important reasons for this was that they were able to agree with large international companies to expand their capabilities, especially in the field of research and development. As a result, according to him, the change in the dimensions of the economy not only slowed, but also accelerated.
Last year, research and development expenditures amounted to 770 billion HUF in Hungary, which is 10 percent more than in 2019, and more than three-quarters of this spending is attributable to corporate expenditures. He stressed that the latter is a good indication that the private sector is also confident in a good Hungarian investment environment.
Then he said that according to the ratings, Hungary ranks 34th in terms of the most innovative economy in the world, but the government wants to make more progress in this area, where major international companies can be partners.
Linde Gáz Magyarország Zrt was founded. Ltd., which manufactures industrial and medical gases, was established in 1992 and currently has ten subsidiaries and nearly a hundred sales partners across the country. The company is involved in the storage and delivery of the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, which requires special processing, to play a key role in the fight against the pandemic.
The minister confirmed that Linde will also provide services from Budapest to the United Arab Emirates, India and Russia to produce gas based on artificial intelligence. He further noted that the government is working with the company on “the energy issue for the future, in relation to the transition to a hydrogen economy.”
Finally, he reported that German companies constitute the largest investment community in Hungary, and that their development plans here “show greater confidence than ever before”.
