Last year 2020 brought major changes not only to people’s daily lives. Small and medium-sized enterprises, like multinational companies, have had to deal with unprecedented problems.
The coronavirus and the subsequent stringent but necessary epidemic measures had a direct impact on the business of ITK Holding Zrt. In view of the health of our employees and the recommendations of the Government of Hungary, our company decided to suspend production processes for two weeks from 23 March. This was a necessary step to ensure an effective defence, even though it put our company under serious strain at management level.
Thanks to the immediate action and the well thought-out strategy, none of our employees had to be dismissed and on 09.04.2020 – in compliance with the strict precautionary measures – production could restart at the Debrecen site of Inter Traction Electrics Ltd. We were almost the first vehicle manufacturer in the country to restart production at our plant. We did all this in order to preserve jobs and to stabilise the Hungarian economy as soon as possible.
The event was celebrated in Debrecen with a rather limited briefing, in view of the epidemiological preparedness and regulation. The guests at the briefing were Dr. László Palkovics, Minister of Innovation and Technology, Dr. László Papp, Mayor of Debrecen, Klaudia Szemereyné Pataki, Mayor of Kecskemét and Péter Ratatics, Managing Director of MOL Hungary. Our guests praised the work of our company and its place in the Hungarian economy.
“The last ten years have shown us that the resilience of an economy that pursues an independent economic policy and builds on work is stronger. Even in a time of war with the virus, protecting and restoring jobs and creating new ones is the most important task.” – said Dr László Palkovics. He added: “To protect the economy, to take advantage of the opportunities that the crisis presents, we will spend the equivalent of 18-20 percent of GDP, HUF 9,200 billion over the next three years. This historic action plan to protect the economy gives us hope that Hungary can emerge from the crisis of the last decade, as it did from the virus crisis, stronger. Based on the performance of the past years, hi-tech companies like Inter Tan-Ker Zrt. can be the engines of economic recovery.”
