Orbán: The pharmaceuticals industry is a driving sector of the Hungarian economy

In Szolnok on Tuesday, at the inauguration of a new building at the plant of the Hungarian-owned company Béres Pharmaceuticals Zrt., Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said that the pharmaceuticals industry is both one of the Hungarian economy’s drivers and one of its most innovative areas.

He said that the goal is to achieve further expansion in the sector, and for its share to increase from its present level of 6 per cent of gross national product to 8 per cent. Speaking on World Pharmacists Day, the Prime Minister highlighted that in Hungary the sector directly provides jobs for some 14,000 people and indirectly provides support for 34,000 families.

The Prime Minister congratulated Béres Pharmaceuticals on its latest HUF 3.2 billion development, for which the government provided a non-repayable grant of HUF 1.3 billion from its large companies investment support programme.

The project has created 37 new jobs, and as a result the number of local people employed there has risen from an initial figure of 64 to more than 300.

Mr. Orbán pointed out that over a time span of more than two decades there have been a number of developments at Béres Pharmaceuticals’ Szolnok plant, with the previous one being opened less than a year ago. These have been at a combined cost – including this project – of over HUF 10 billion, he said.

The Prime Minister praised the Béres family’s success story, saying that amidst keen market competition the only path to success is the development of new products and the updating of existing ones. “We need many more of these stories in Hungary”, the Prime Minister said.

Mr. Orbán added that everything possible is being done to enable as many Hungarian family businesses as possible to pursue the path followed by Béres Pharmaceuticals.

The company operates with Hungarian knowledge, development and workers. The Prime Minister stressed that “any success that bears our national colours – red, white and green – is naturally closest to our hearts”.

Mr. Orbán said that the Béres Pharmaceuticals building is the tenth industrial facility to have been opened in the six months since the Hungarian general election this spring, with the total value of these projects standing at almost HUF 65 billion.

He noted that today the Hungarian economy is growing at a rate of between 4 and 5 per cent, compared to a figure of around zero in 2010.