Hungary, China sign Silk Road Economic Belt MoU

Budapest, June 6 (MTI) – The foreign ministers of Hungary and China signed a memorandum of understanding on the governments’ active support for the establishment of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Maritime Silk Road, in Budapest on Saturday.

The declaration was signed by Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.

The projects, which aim to foster connectivity and cooperation between the countries along the old Silk Road as well as between Southeast Asia, Oceania, and North Africa, are being financed by the Silk Road Fund, which has already been capitalised with some 40 billion dollars from Beijing.

Szijjarto said the significance of Hungary’s bilateral cooperation with China was evidenced by the fact that it is the first country with whom China has signed an agreement on the projects’ implementation.

Wang Yi said relations between Hungary and China were in their best period ever, thanks to the efforts of both countries. He praised the Hungarian government’s policy of opening up to countries in the east, and said Hungary could play the role of bridgehead between China and the European Union.

He said an earlier meeting with Prime Minister Viktor Orban had strengthened the confidence the two countries share in each other.

Making Hungary China’s bridgehead into Europe as well as a regional centre is a foreign policy priority, Szijjarto said.

Hungary’s and China’s cooperation has never before been so good and so effective, Szijjarto said, adding that Hungary wished to remain the “flagship” for China’s cooperation with Central and Eastern Europe.

He said that a particularly important project, the upgrade of the rail line between Belgrade and Budapest, which will become part of a corridor for bringing Chinese goods to Europe, was proceeding on schedule. Representatives from the Chinese, Serbian and Hungarian governments will soon meet in Budapest to agree on plans for the second half of the year, he added.

The Hungarian and Serb feasibility studies have been drawn up, and the Chinese government has issued its opinion on them. A unified feasibility study must be drawn up on the basis of these by June 30, Szijjarto said

He said it signalled the success of bilateral economic cooperation that Hungary’s exports to China rose by 8 percent to a record 2.2 billion dollars last year. Food counted for a major part of those exports, said Szijjarto, adding that Hungary’s exports in this sector increased seven-fold in the first three months of this year, compared with the same period in 2014.

Chinese companies have so far invested more than 3.5 billion dollars in Hungary, and a number of them have set up regional centres in Hungary, Szijjarto said.

He noted that a direct Budapest-Beijing flight had been launched on May 1 and since carried more than 4,000 passengers. Last year, more than 90,000 Chinese tourists arrived in Hungary, and tourist numbers were up 16 percent in the first quarter of this year, he added.

Szijjarto said that a meeting of the Hungarian-Chinese Joint Economic Committee will take place in Budapest in July.

Photo: MTI

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters