Hungary attracted new investments worth 7 billion euros last year, with agreements reached on 108 projects, István Joó, chief executive of the Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency (HIPA) and government commissioner, said on Tuesday on M1.
Responding to questions about opposition plans to raise taxes or cut state support for investments, Joó said such measures would dismantle the entire system and undermine Hungary’s competitiveness. He said investment inflows continue to grow, attributing this to what he described as Europe’s most competitive business and investment environment created over the past 16 years.
Joó said investors consider a wide range of factors when choosing a location, including tax levels, the education system, workforce skills, infrastructure and logistics. He noted that Hungary offers some of the lowest taxes in Europe, adding that tax incentives, such as corporate tax relief, are equally available to domestic small and medium-sized enterprises and foreign multinationals.
He also said all EU member states use similar tools to support investors. According to Joó, in both 2023 and 2024, the volume of investments secured through HIPA agreements exceeded the combined total of the other three Visegrád countries. Citing an independent external analysis, he said every forint of support provided by HIPA generates 4.1 forints in budget revenue.
On research and development, Joó said HIPA agreed on 14 projects in 2025 with a combined value exceeding 250 billion forints, creating around 600 research and development jobs. He added that business services centres announced 3,500 new jobs last year.
He said investments in 2025 came from 16 countries across 17 sectors, with China again the largest source of capital. Joó also highlighted strong growth from western partners, calling 2025 a record year for US investments, with 16 projects worth 200 billion forints announced within a single year, many of them in research and development. Germany and Austria remain among Hungary’s largest investors, with steady capital inflows continuing from both countries.
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