Industrial parks on the increase

In addition to the customary IP activities the park also carries out domestic and international deliveries, as well as offering services such at the technical and financial planning and realisation of greenfield investments.

A few hundred metres from the western boundary of Székesfehérvár, next to highway #8 (to Graz, via Veszprém) lies the Városkapu [city gate] Industrial and Commercial Zone, an industrial park of 30+40 hectares within the small village of Iszkaszentgyörgy.

The Sóstó Industrial Park covers a 220-hectare site on an area bordered by the M7 motorway, Highway #63 and the Budapest-Nagykinizsa railway line. The park is home to 14 companies on a site of 80 hectares, including Philips, Stollwerck, Shell-Gas, Nokia, General Plastics. The advantage of the park is its proximity to the capital city, as well as to lakes Balaton and Velence, and it is also located on a rail-road intersection. Around 80 hectares remains unused at the park. Development is the task of Loranger Sóstó Ipari Park Kft.

The Alba Industrial and Commercial Zone is a 40-hectare industrial and commercial park. It is located at the intersection between the M7 motorway to Balaton and Croatia, Highway #8 from Veszprém to Graz (Austria), and Highway #63 to Yugoslavia, and is approachable from all these roads. Units of 3,000 to 70,000 square metres have been constructed on the site, which can also be joined up according to requirements.

So far 14 properties have been sold on the site. Several investments are under way, the first factory - the packaging materials plant of Karsai Rt. - has already started production.

Hódmezővásárhely was one of the successful applicants
in last year's industrial park tender, winning 128.6 million forints in non-repayable subsidy. The first task is the signing of the necessary contracts, which will be carried out according to public procurement tendering procedure. After the construction of the necessary infrastructure smaller and larger companies will be able to move into the site. This industrial park will transform the industrial structure in the town, which overlaps with residential areas, and create new jobs. The following tasks need to be carried out using the money awarded for development of the park: installations of water mains, sewers and gas mains (development of utilities within the site) - 73 million forints, as well as electrical grid and water mains (outside the site), gas mains (within the site), and rainwater and sewage drainage. This will cost a total of 215.8 million forints, of which 97.2 million forints will come from own resources. A more distant goal is the expansion and development of the park.

Forty-three kilometres from Budapest on the M5 motorway, near to Újhártyán, the first 4,000m2 manufacturing hall of a new industrial park is due to open soon. This will be followed by two more of similar size, meaning that by 2002 this complex - carrying out tasks unique in Hungary today - built by Mitsubishi Corporation with the participation of the state institution the Hungarian Investment and Commercial Development Co. (ITDH), will be complete. The aim of the industrial park is to attract mainly Japanese SMEs to Hungary. All they need to do is move into the manufacturing and support units and pay the fees for the services which extend to cover the warehousing, transportation and marketing of the products they manufacture. A centre of this type has already been built in Malaysia. The Újhartyány complex is the second of its type in the world, the first in Europe.

The first resident will be Nissan Corporation, but the operators are confident that other will take advantage of the opportunity, as Hungary's central location in Europe and inexpensive labour force are thought highly of in the land of the rising sun. The companies bring suppliers with them too, which does not mean that Hungarian companies are being forced out of this market.

Tibor Melega, CEO of ITDH stated that Újhartyány was selected from 12 possible sites in Hungary as the local council endeavoured from the very beginning to create favourable infrastructural conditions. The interest the Japanese giant has in creating the park is the channelling of its diverse business relationships into Hungary, he added.

Mobiles the main product of the new manufacturing hall
The foundation stone of the extension to manufacturing unit B of Flextronics International at Zalaegerszeg was recently ceremoniously laid by Peter Baumgartner, director for the Central-Eastern European region, in the company of Béla Glattfelder - secretary of state at the economics ministry - and the local mayor, Endre Gyimesi. During operation of the factory, opened in April last year, it transpired that the company will only able to meet orders through a more than doubling of manufacturing capacity. The 17,000m2 Zala B unit on the 28-hectare Zalaegerszeg Industrial Park will be expanded by around 20,000m2 in a new investment. The expansion of the building alone will cost 9 million dollars, fifty per cent of which will go to local sub-contractors.
The pace of growth is shown by the fact that the new manufacturing hall in Tab was opened in January this year. In addition, construction work on the newest Flextronics factory has started in the Nyíregyháza Industrial Park opened last year. It is primarily mother boards, audio CD and CD-ROM reader/writer electronic products that will be rolling off the production lines, but this will be extended to mobile phones following expansion. The expansion will make Zalaegerszeg one of the mobile phone manufacturing centres of Europe.
Including the investments mentioned above, by the end of the year Flextronics is expected to employ over 11,000 people in four counties, making it the largest employer in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg, Vas and Zala counties.