Formation of American-Hungarian Business Council opens ‘new dimension’ in ties, says foreign minister in NY
Washington, DC, February 16 (MTI) – The founding of the American-Hungarian Business Council has opened a “new dimension” in Hungary-US economic relations, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said after taking part in the council’s founding session in New York on Tuesday.
The organisation’s aim is to help further develop already existing ties between the Hungarian government and American companies and to encourage new American investments in Hungary, the minister said, adding that Eximbank will open a 550 million dollar credit line to help boost investments.
He said the council was founded by eleven companies, among them major players like Johnson & Johnson, a Coca-Cola, Eli Lilly, Pfizer and Warburg-Pincus.
Szijjártó said the 1,600 American firms doing business in Hungary have invested a total of 9 billion dollars in the country. Forty of the fifty biggest US-based multinational companies are present in Hungary, he said.
Szijjártó also signed agreements with several companies doing business in Hungary on expanding their capacities at their Hungarian premises. Without naming the companies themselves, the minister said the new investments concern the automotive, financial and IT sectors.
Szijjártó later met UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman to discuss releasing the UN documents on Hungary’s 1956 anti-Soviet revolution. The minister asked Feltman to lift the confidential status of the documents so that they could be fully accessible by the public.
The two officials also discussed the organisation’s general preventive diplomacy and mediation efforts and Europe’s migrant crisis. Szijjarto and Feltman were joined by Karen Abu Zayd, recently-appointed UN special advisor on addressing large movements of refugees and migrants.
Szijjártó told UN officials that Europe is dealing with a migrant crisis and not a refugee crisis and warned against the dangers of confusing migrants with refugees.
Photo: MTI
Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters
