Tőkevonzás vagy -taszítás? A befektetésösztönzési politika változásai a rendszerváltás utáni Magyarországon

The author distinguishes four stages of the development of Hungary’s policy towards foreign direct investment. Right after the systemic transformation Hungary welcomed wholeheartedly foreign investors, mostly in connection with the large-scale privatisation of formerly government-held assets. It was in this period (i.e. 1990–1996) when Hungary created the most important components of a business environment indispensable for the operation of a market economy. In the second stage (1997–2003) the government tried to attract green field investments, applying a wide variety of incentives (mostly of fiscal nature) and setting up the International Trade and Development Agency (ITD Hungary). As a result, the share of foreign-owned enterprises attained a relatively high level both in the production of GDP and exports. After Hungary’s EU accession (2004) the incentives of the previous periods could not be upheld any more since they did not comply with the regulations of the EU’s competition policy. As an EU member state, Hungary lost most of its attractiveness and enterprises employing large numbers of semi-skilled workers started to leave the country. Since 2010, when the current government came to power, some controversial tendencies have surfaced: the government has been striving to increase the share of Hungarian-owned enterprises and has deployed a differentiated strategy vis-à-vis the subsidiaries of foreign companies. Te general climate for foreign investments deteriorated since the government tried to place most of the burden of the recent economic crisis on the shoulders of multinational companies operating in Hungary (primarily in the field of banking, energy supply, retail and telecommunications).