BUDAPEST, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Japanese electronics firm Stanley Group on Thursday opened its first plant in Europe as it began trial production in a new 2.3 billion forints ($9.28 million) plant in Gyongyos, 80 kilometres east of Budapest.
The plant, when full production will start in December, will have a monthly output of 4,500 sets of lights for Mazda cars, the company said in a statement.
It added that it planned to build a new manufacturing plant year and double the workforce from the current 30 employees.
Stanley Group said the plant would employ 200 people BY 2005.
The investment comes at a time when Hungary, a frontrunner to join the European Union in 2004, seeks to revive greenfield investments, a key source of job creation and a driver of exports and gross domestic product growth.
Hungary has attracted some 27.95 billion euros in foreign direct investments since 1990.
However, a major blow came on Tuesday when IBM announced that it would shut down its hard disk plant in Szekesfehervar, some 60 kilometres southwest of Budapest, at the end of November due to weak demand.
With this move IBM will axe 2,100 permanent jobs there and a further 1,600 contractor jobs.