FM Szijjártó: Hungary example of East-West cooperation benefits

Hungary is “an excellent example for the benefits cooperation between East and West could yield,” Péter Szijjártó, the minister of foreign affairs and trade, said on Thursday adding that Hungary “seeks to stay in the forefront of that trend in future”.

The foreign ministry quoted Szijjártó as speaking at an event organised by China’s Fiberhome, where the minister said that the telecommunication equipment provider would set up an optical cable plant in Kisbér, north-west Hungary, with an initial investment of 6.5 billion forints (EUR 16.8m). The investment which will create 120 jobs will be supported by a 970 million forint government grant, the minister said.

Szijjártó said the project would “contribute to increasing the technological level of the Hungarian economy and further strengthen the Hungarian electronics sector, which provides employment to 130,000 people and produced goods worth a combined 11,000 billion froints last year.”

Szijjártó noted that bilateral trade had exceeded 12 billion US dollars last year, the highest volume between Hungary and a non-EU state. Hungary also attracts the most foreign direct investment from China among Central European countries, he added.

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