Szijjarto opens Hungarian trading house in Chile

Washington, DC (MTI) – Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto opened a Hungarian trading house in Santiago de Chile on Friday.

Following talks with Chile’s Foreign Affairs Minister Heraldo Munoz and with Chilean businessmen, Szijjarto told MTI by phone that Chile is one of the most active participants of South American regional policy. It is also one of the most open countries on the continent, which is highly integrated into the global economy, and has signed 60 free trade agreements. Chile’s foreign policy focuses on foreign trade, he added.

“Chile’s economic openness and regional commitment, combined with the Hungarian government’s strategy of opening to the south provides good opportunities to assert Hungarian economic interests in this cooperation,” the minister said.

Szijjarto pointed out that there is a global race for economic cooperation with Chile, noting that Chile’s number one trade partner is China and it is in Chile that Poland has carried out its biggest non-ferrous metal mining investment. If Hungary is to succeed in this race, it needs to rebuild its presence in time, the minister said.

“Accordingly, we reopened our embassy in 2013. This has already yielded some positive results, …, Hungarian exports rose by 62 percent last year to close to 60 million dollars,” he said.