The Economy of Vas County

Vas County is considered to be Hungary’s western gate and it plays a decisive role in the development of the local society and economy. Benefiting from its positional advantages, it has become the pioneer of economic transition and has turned into one of the most important centres of economic and social modernisation in Hungary. The county is one of the most attractive investment regions as it has favourable geographic conditions, a restructured economy, as well as high quality human resources and cultural values.

Thanks to foreign capital that helped exploiting the geographical advantages, development figures of the county are well above the national average. It is the second on the list of GDP per capita and also on the one of the value of taxed income per capita (in this respect Budapest comes in first). An especially high level of industrial production, the investments and the construction activities are all indicators for a dynamic local economy. Performance indicators and enterprise characteristics are not the only signs of a vivid economic life; the local inhabitants’ economic activity also reflects this. We have the highest number of economically active people and the lowest unemployment rate.

Furthermore the rate of employed people is ten percentage points higher than the national average.

The key force of economy is industry. The multinational companies that settled down helped to raise the contribution of the sector to the county’s added value to forty percent, which is twice as much as the national average. Machine industry with its seventy percent is a decisive force, due to its restructuring over the last decade, but textile-, wine-, foodstuffs-, chemical and wood industries also play a pivotal role. The large degree of import-export rates and the fact that more and more companies are winning the ISO9000 quality management award, neatly illustrates that the spreading of competitive products and outstanding quality are a priority.

Famous international companies such as OPEL, Philips, Siemens Matsushita, Linde or Packard Electric that also symbolise the investment environment constitute the economic bases of the county. Old large companies like Styl Clothing Limited, Falco Limited, SáGa Foods Poultry Industry Limited or the Cheese Ltd. In Répcelak are again competitive forces, as they have new, foreign owners and play a key role in privatising foreign capital and making green-investments.

The fundamental changes within the large enterprises brought about important changes in the bottom-up procedures within SMEs. The vast majority of Vas County’s 18,000 enterprises are SMEs, which play a key role in economic flexibility, its ability for constant revival and keeping track with the stark realities of market competition. These days we have several examples of a working relationship between large and small and medium-sized enterprises, we have clear outlines of transport-relations, which could boost the economic network in the county.