” We do not want to become the earth leader”, said Hungary’s foreign minister in Beijing last October, about his country’s ambitious plans for manufacturing Electric Vehicle chargers, “because the world leader is China”.
China is ahead of the US with 6 % of the lithium-ion global battery manufacturing capacity with an astonishing 79 % share. Hungary is then second with 4 % and seeks immediately to beat the Americans, explained Peter Szijjarto, during his visit to China.
With 36 companies now built, under construction or planned, his terms were no idle talk.
The Fidesz state under Viktor Orban has praised its “opening to the East”.
Budapest is met with a lot of criticism for maintaining robust economic ties with Russia. The strengthening relations with China and South Korea are more significant in terms of financial importance. The pillar of that drive is electric vehicles, and Hungary is once again drawing the envy of EU members more than their approval.
By this summers, there will be 17 flights a week between Budapest and Chinese locations. With €10 billion in 2023, China overtook Hungary as the country’s second largest investment.
The strong dark creating blocks of China’s CATL factory extend into the distance from the Reformed Great Church’s tower in Debrecen. The biggest battery manufacturer in the world has a large presence in northeast Hungary.
Up until last year, the scenery was painted green and yellow by flowers and oilseed assault. The Chinese SemCorp separation metal manufacturer and the Chinese EcoPro electrode flower have now opened, also.
Get past the building site of Debrecen’s fresh, all- energy BMW factory and you will get another Chinese battery maker, Eve Energy.
However, bulldozers in southwestern Hungary are stripping the land over a 300 hectare- site to make it for a Foreign “gigafactory” for Hyundai electric cars.
Here, companies in South Korea and Japan have already begun producing batteries or device parts.
Noemi Sidlo from CATL’s Hungarian department says,” Hungary is in the center of Europe and close to the biggest professional gamers in the mechanical industry.”
It was clear where to go, and the local and national institutions were eager to assist, she explained.
Mr Orban’s Fidesz state has bent over backwards to get Foreign investment, promising CATL €800m in duty incentives and institutional support to win the deal- more than 10 % of the €7.3bn investment.
Add to that China invested in a high-speed railway that would connect Central Europe to the ports of Thessaloniki and Piraeus, and Budapest’s enthusiasm for Chinese investment is even clearer.
The feeling appears to be mutual. When Chinese President Xi Jinping comes to Europe in May, he will visit just three countries- France, Serbia, and Hungary.
What could still go wrong for Viktor Orban’s plans?
Rather a lot, say his critics. Despite the near-record silence in the Fidesz-controlled media about potential issues, environmental protests against the swathe of factories are growing.
The mayor of Debrecen, Laszlo Papp, has refused to talk to the BBC.
Emails sent to the Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency and the foreign ministry repeatedly remain unanswered.
Opponents contend that because they have been given “enhanced national interest” status, there is no way to challenge the projects locally.
The picturesque village of Mikepercs, located south of Debrecen, has grown increasingly unpopular with construction projects.
It is incredibly unfair they built such an enormous factory here, without asking the locals, claims local campaigner Eva Kozma,” but none of us mothers are against green cars.”
She criticizes battery factories elsewhere in Hungary for their environmental problems, saying,” That’s not a green future if everyone here gets cancer, just because people who are luckier than us can flit around in their nice green cars.”
Noemi Sidlo from CATL insists her fears are ungrounded.
Water supply is also a major issue in Debrecen.
Rainfall is declining in the Great Hungarian plain, underground water supplies are being cut, and government plans have so far failed to capture more of the water that flows through the Danube and Tisza rivers.
Hungary risks trading its status as a water superpower, to become an electromobility superpower. Much of the country’s surface is now covered in water, according to 19th-century maps.
In a nation with unemployment rates below 5 %, there is also labor, which is a problem.
CATL will need 9, 000 workers on top of that, but the Hungarian government retakes the office in election after election with the idea that “keep migrants out .”
The rising number of Turkish workers in Debrecen, where the BMW plant is being built, was recently highlighted by the right-wing Our Homeland Movement.
Another issue that critics have is that cheap labor, cheap land, and generous government incentives will make Hungary a” servant-state” for Chinese and South-East Asian companies.
The government acknowledges that there is a chance that domestic research and development will suffer as wages are kept low.
” We have to convince the investors, not only to bring production here, but also research”, Balazs Orban, political director of the Prime Minister’s Office told the BBC.
” How we merge their research with the Hungarian companies. For the upcoming ten years, this will be the biggest challenge.
