Hungary, Turkey set up joint economic and trade committee

Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó and Turkish Trade Minister Mehmet Mus signed the founding statement of a new Hungarian-Turkish economic and trade committee in Ankara on Tuesday.

Addressing a joint press conference after the signing, Szijjártó said exports had reached record levels in both Hungary and Turkey in 2021.

Exports came to 209 billion euros in Turkey and 119 billion euros in Hungary last year, the minister said.

This puts Hungary’s export performance 34th in the world, even when it is ranked 95th by population, he said.

Bilateral trade turnover reached a record 4 billion dollars in 2021, a 15 percent increase over the 2020 figure, Szijjártó said.

Hungarian exports to Turkey came to 2.5 billion US dollars last year, up 21 percent from 2020, Szijjártó said.

As regards the development of Hungarian-Turkish economic cooperation, Szijjártó said the two countries had set up an operative working group with a view to boosting economic and trade cooperation. Also, the Hungarian government is supporting a 100 billion forint (EUR 266.5m) investment by Turkey’s Sisecam Group in Kaposvár, in south-western Hungary, with a 14 billion forint grant, he said. Meanwhile,

Hungary’s Eximbank has opened a 105 million euro credit line to help finance Hungarian-Turkish business cooperation.

Szijjártó noted that Hungarian health industry producer Medicor was building a neonatal incubator plant in Turkey with the support of the Hungarian government, adding that the government was helping Hungarian businesses expand into the Turkish market in the areas of water management, the printing industry and the construction of power plants.

On another subject, Szijjártó noted that 50 Turkish customs officers were posted on the Hungary-Romania and Hungary-Serbia borders in order to ensure the smooth flow of freight traffic. He also noted that the Turkish, Bulgarian, Serbian and Hungarian ministers in charge of transport will establish a railway working group after east-west shipping faces significant challenges and has become partially impossible because of the situation in Ukraine.

Szijjártó also said that