“We all believe in Africa” – The 6th Africa Expo has started

According to globoport.hu, Thursday was a professional day, but the Africa Expo can be visited by anyone from Friday as part of the Travel Exhibition held at Hungexpo.

“Here we all believe in Africa” said Africa expert Ildikó Szilasi at the opening ceremony of the 6^th Africa Expo. The founder and organiser of the event thanked Hungexpo Budapest Market for taking Africa into the heart of the Travel Exhibition, and the main sponsor of Africa expo, the Hungarian Tarde & Cultural Centre (HTCC), and its president, Sándor Balogh, who is also the president of the African-Hungarian Union (AHU).

It shows the prestige of the event that the ambassadors of several African countries like Morocco, Angola, Republic of South Africa and Sudan were present at the opening ceremony.

Péter Orosz, the network development director of HTCC, expressed his joy for being able to welcome African countries and their exhibitors. He hopes that the Africa Expo will contribute to bringing the continent and its dwellers closer to Hungarians.

Sándor Balogh, the founder of the main sponsor HTCC, read the letter of patron Miklós Seszták, Minister of National Development, in his speech. He wrote about how we, Hungarians feel about Africa. When we think of the continent – with the words of the famous Hungarian traveller, Zsigmond Széchenyi – we see diversity and intense exoticism, where sunrises are brighter and raindrops shine more beautifully. Just like he experienced in 2015, when he visited Uganda.

But Africa is much more than that: it welcomes foreign investors, including Hungarians, with great opportunities. However, we have to be present at the continent to turn these opportunities into successes. This is why he’s happy that HTCC now has offices in seven African countries, because they aim to represent the Hungarian business world in Africa and to facilitate successful investments.

The Hungarian government considers Africa an important partner. In our globalising world we have to face challenges, difficulties like the climate change, sustainable development, immigration, to which we can only give adequate answers if we stick together. As the Mandinka saying goes: many small people in many small places, while doing many small things, can change the face of the world. In our case, this is only possible if, besides the traditional western openness, Hungary is also open towards eastern and southern countries – stated the minister. In fact, based on estimations, Africa’s share of the world economy’s performance is expected to grow from the current 2% to 12% by 2050.

Visitors can get to know Africa, its culture and opportunities at 28 exhibitor stands during the Africa Expo. The selection is quite diverse: it covers almost all fields of life from tourism, charity and volunteer programmes to business opportunities.

The African-Hungarian Union, organiser of medical and child support missions, received a separate stand along with Taita Charity supporting the African orphanage and school, the Republic of South Africa, Angola, Globoport Media Holding dealing with both Africa and the rest of the world, Culture Africa Charity, Travel to Africa travel agency, Védegylet fairtrade movement, Jane Goodall Institution and Conservationist Association, and of course the main sponsor, HTCC, which also held a business conference at the expo.

Take out your planners and write down Africa Expo for this weekend. It is the place for you to go if you’re interested in the continent. By the way, there’s also going to be an Africa bazaar, where you can get a taste of culture by favour of Ballett Camara and Abdoul Camara, professional Senegalese dancers and musicians.