Hungary’s foreign minister: Europe must seize One Belt, One Road opportunities

“The Chinese President’s One Belt, One Road strategy represents a major opportunity for Europe, which the continent must exploit”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó told public media on Sunday at the One Belt, One Road international forum in Beijing.

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is also attending the meeting, which began on Sunday morning local time with the participation of 28 heads of state and government.

In his statement, Mr. Szijjártó stressed:

“The One Belt, One Road strategy is creating the infrastructure for Eurasian cooperation”.

“In view of the fact that the competitiveness of the European Union is continuously decreasing, it needs strategies that enable the halting of this process and the regaining of competitiveness”, said the Minister, according to whom “the closest possible relations must be maintained with the world’s most rapidly developing region, the Asian and Southeast Asian region”.

“We must recognise that the situation is no longer that capital flows exclusively from West to East in search of cheap labour, because these days large Asian corporations have become extremely successful on the European market and are buying up increasing numbers of European enterprises”, he explained, highlighting the fact that “Europe and Hungary must exploit this process and attract as many Asian and Southeast Asian companies as possible that represent high added value and apply state-of-the-art technologies”.

“We must realise all of the transport, energy and infrastructure development projects that serve to improve the future economic strength of Hungary and the EU made possible by the One Belt, One Road program and the Eastern Opening strategy”, Mr. Szijjártó declared.

The Minister indicated three concrete goals with relation to the One Belt, One Road strategy: firstly, that as many highly developed Hungarian technologies should be applied in the huge development projects that are being realised in this part of Asia, primarily within the fields of water management, city management and IT. “In addition, the Government would like as many infrastructure development projects and Asia-Europe routes as possible to reach Europe via Hungary, which would also lead to an increase in export opportunities for Hungarian products to Asia. The third goal is for Hungary to be the destination for a significant proportion of the Chinese investments being made in Europe within the framework of the One Belt, One Road strategy, a goal which is being outstandingly served by the tax cuts introduced in recent years, the tax benefits for research & development and the Digital Hungary Programme, Mr. Szijjártó explained.