HIPA

HIPA (Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency) is Hungary's national FDI-promotion agency, headquartered in Budapest under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade since its creation in 2014, when the earlier Hungarian Trade and Investment Agency (HITA, est. 2011) was split into separate export and investment bodies. It acts as a 'one-stop-shop' helping investors choose locations, negotiate incentive packages, find suppliers and coordinate permitting, free of charge (hipa.hu).

By its own reporting, HIPA guided 2,305 investment projects worth more than EUR 66 billion and close to 187,000 jobs between January 2014 and December 2025. In 2025 alone it recorded 108 new agreements worth roughly EUR 7.0-7.07 billion and about 18,200 jobs - independently corroborated by Hungarian business media Trademagazin and Hungarian Conservative - including 14 R&D projects (EUR 570 million, ~600 jobs) and 13 business-services-centre projects (over 3,200 jobs). China was the leading investment source in 2025 (EUR 3.97 billion, about 57% of volume).

Several of HIPA's flagship deals face real scrutiny. The European Commission opened a Foreign Subsidies Regulation investigation in March 2025 into Hungarian state support for BYD's EUR 4 billion EV plant in Szeged, and EU trade officials have criticised some Chinese-backed projects as low-value-added assembly with limited local technology transfer. Hungary has committed roughly EUR 122-125 million in infrastructure aid to BYD and nearly EUR 2 billion to support CATL's EUR 7 billion-plus battery plant.

Independent research adds further honest context: Heinrich Boll Stiftung's EU office found Hungary's overall state-subsidy spending reached 2.9% of GDP in 2023 - the highest in the EU - with weak transparency, and investigative outlets (Rest of World) and academic literature document local protests and pollution allegations around some battery-sector plants attracted partly through HIPA-brokered incentives, an issue that became a live factor in Hungarian domestic politics.

Read the full analysis: https://hipa.hu/