Hungary-China
To improve its competitiveness, Hungary needs relations with China and strengthened cooperation. Economics Minister Márton Nagy said this on Thursday in Budapest.
Hungary has all the prerequisites to become a logistics center for Chinese goods. The country has an excellent location, well-developed infrastructure and an investment environment that is competitive at the European level, Nagy said at a forum on cooperation between China and Hungary within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative. Bilateral cooperation covers a broad spectrum, including infrastructure, new energies, trade, logistics and digital. This coexistence promotes the development of Hungary and brings benefits to both peoples, said the minister.
Infrastructure expansion and digitalization
The focus is on projects to expand the infrastructure through joint financing. China is interested in developing road, rail and logistics infrastructure to transport goods to Western and Northern Europe via Hungary. Digitalization could also become an important area of relationships in the future. China is one of the world’s leading powers and Hungarian companies are dependent on technological development. Therefore, the government supports the cooperation between 4iG and Huawei.
Nagy welcomed the fact that the largest Chinese banks are already present in Hungary. After the Bank of China, the China Construction Bank and the China Development Bank, ICBC will soon also be represented in Hungary. This makes Hungary an important regional partner for China in the financial sector. Years ago, the government initiated a policy of opening up to the East in order to diversify international relations. From the beginning, attempts were made to make Hungary a meeting point for capital and high technology between East and West. The Budapest-Belgrade railway line is expected to be completed by next summer. Now they want to launch further domestic projects with Chinese help. Specifically, there are five projects in the areas of logistics, rail networks and charging infrastructure, the details of which Prime Minister Viktor Orbán will announce in the next few days.
Protectionist attempts by the EU
China can count on Hungary as a reliable partner. The government strives for cooperation based on mutual respect and rejects any protectionist attempts to exclude Chinese products from the European market. Europe should not isolate itself, the minister demanded, but must continue to develop with the global economy, in which China is an unavoidable factor.
The country in the Far East is of great importance for Hungary. The ninth largest trading partner accounts for 4% of Hungary’s foreign trade. No other country receives more capital from Hungary for the spread of electromobility. The weight of the global economy is increasingly shifting to Asia, and the share of foreign investment (FDI) from the region in Hungary has increased from 19 to 34%, Nagy gave concrete figures. Among the announced projects, he highlighted the plants of CATL in Debrecen and BYD in Szeged, which will bring cutting-edge technologies to the country.
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