Building ties with Southeast Asia ‘great potential’, says Hungarian FM
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Building closer ties with Southeast Asia has a “great potential” for Hungarian businesses, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said after talks with his Philippines counterpart in Budapest on Friday.
At a joint press conference with Teodoro Lochin, Szijjártó said that the Southeast Asian region’s economic boom and increased import demand offers great opportunities for the Hungarian economy.
Szijjártó welcomed that Hungary’s exports to the Philippines had grown by 74 percent in the first 11 months of last year and added that the goal was to help Hungarian businesses to further market opportunities.
He added that the food industry and water management could the the “flagship” of Hungarian exports.
At the talks, Szijjártó voiced Hungary’s solidarity with the Philippines over a recent terrorist attack by the Islamic State organisation on a Catholic church. The attack “also shows that the global fight against Islamic extremism, a hotbed for terrorism, must be stepped up”, he said.