Foreign minister opens Hungarian trade centre in Shanghai

Hungary realised in time that the Chinese market offers great opportunities for high-quality Hungarian products and services, Péter Szijjártó, the foreign affairs and trade minister, told public media in Shanghai on Sunday after opening a Hungarian trade centre in the city.

The minister, who is member of the delegation accompanying the prime minister on a visit to Shanghai, said Hungary had realised in time the importance of the new global economic processes as well as the fact that major Far Eastern companies representing the latest technological advances and gaining increasing ground in Europe and North America are the “flagships of the modern industrial revolution”.

Szijjártó said the value of Hungary’s exports to China reached a record 2.7 billion dollars last year.

There is a constant struggle for Chinese market opportunities, he said, with every country across the world competing for market opportunities offered by the fastest-growing economy.

This is why the decision was taken to open a Hungarian trade centre in Shanghai, China’s economic capital, providing the opportunity on an area of more than 1,700 sqms to present Hungarian products and the adequate infrastructure to Hungarian companies for negotiations, market research and finding partners, Szijjártó said.

He noted that further trade centres will be opened in six Chinese cities with a population of more than ten million, providing Hungarian businesses access to the Chinese market.

Chinese companies continue to express clear interest in investment opportunities in Hungary, particularly in the automotive sector, Szijjártó added.

He noted that there is a forthcoming agreement with one of the world’s biggest Chinese automotive supplier companies, which plans to invest more than 110 million dollars into establishing a production base in eastern Hungary, its first outside of China. The name of the investor and other details will be released soon, the minister said.

For that matter, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán will travel to China to attend events of the first China International Import Expo (CIIE) which will open in Shanghai on 5 November.

Featured image: www.facebook.com/MagyarországKormánya

Source: MTI