In one of his last official acts before stepping down last week as Minister of Economy and Transport, János Kóka handed out awards to some of Hungary’s most important foreign direct investors. According to Gazdasági Rádió, the top honors went to Hankook Tire Hungary Kft, which was named “Biggest new investor of the year,” for the large new factory built by its local operating unit in Dunaújváros, the central Hungarian city known for a few unhappy years as “Stalin City.” But what the report (and no doubt the engraving on whatever plaque or ceremonial bowl handed out) did not mention was that just days before the same government revoked almost Ft 150 million (roughly €600,000) of the billions of various investment incentives granted Hankook because of alleged labor law infractions.
The clampdown on Hankook is a victory for the labor unions, environmental activists and various opposition-linked “no” groups that had waged an all-out jihad against the company ever since the announcement of the investment.
In fairness to Kóka and the government he has now departed in favor of running the junior coalition partner Alliance of Free Democrats, we’ll bet there isn’t much pleasure in official circles at the various miseries being endured by Hankook. And it certainly wouldn’t be fair if Kóka had short-circuited the local labor office’s (no doubt very thorough) enforcement efforts just to keep things sweet with the Koreans. Still, giving Hankook an award in the same news cycle that it is being sanctioned looks pretty kooky, at best.
In making the awards Kóka said that major investments of this kind had totaled Ft 712 billion in 2006, creating 21,000 jobs directly and 60,000 indirectly.
Meanwhile, the other awards went to Audi Hungaria Motor Kft, for being the “biggest re-investor of the year” and Denso Manufacturing Hungary Kft was honored for creating the most new jobs. Other runner-ups included Morgan Stanley Hungary Analyst Kft, which this year established a largest regional center, and Knorr Bremse and the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME), which were cited for their research and development work. Finally, the northeast city of Nyíregyháza was recognized for having the “investor-friendly industry park of the year.” Congratulations to all of them; we hope they have better luck than the company that actually took home the grand prize.