Government wants to rely on China’s Huawei for digitalisation, says minister in Beijing

Hungary is a leader in digitalisation in which Huawei plays a decisive role, the minister of foreign affairs and trade said on Monday after the signing of an agreement on the SEEDs scholarship scheme by representatives of the company and Hungary’s National University of Public Service in Beijing.

Péter Szijjártó said on Facebook that with Huawei’s help, Hungary was continually developing its 5G network, the level of technology in the economy was improving and progress was being made to ensure that over 90 percent of households in Hungary get internet coverage by 2050.

“We continue to maintain the position concerning global telecommunications providers that nobody should be excluded from competition based on their country of origin,” Szijjártó said. Hungary will continue to provide an open and fair economic and business environment for foreign investors in which the only powerful view is that companies must respect Hungarian laws and regulations, he said.

“Huawei appreciates all of this and consequently our cooperation is further expanding, with the company’s scholarship scheme being launched at the National University of Public Service, focusing on research and innovation linked to 5G,” the foreign minister added.

Huawei said in a statement that the SEEDs scholarship scheme is aimed at talent support in technology, including support for student research linked to 5G. Huawei Technologies launched the SEESDs scholarship scheme in Europe in twelve countries in 2021.

In connection with the scholarship agreement, Szijjártó said that economic relations with China remained to be one of the main pillars of the government strategy for foreign trade.

“Companies, such as Huawei play the most important role in this because they not only invest and create jobs in Hungary but share technology know-how and actively support higher education in Hungary,” he said.

As we wrote yesterday, Chinese are the largest nationality among the non-EEA real estate buyers in Budapest, details HERE.