Uzbekistan Hungary concludes important new agreements and resumes direct flights

Hungary and Uzbekistan have profited dramatically from their friendship and are ready to expand cooperation further, including in the energy sector, the minister of foreign affairs and trade said in Tashkent on Tuesday.

Speaking at a Hungarian-Uzbek mixed economic committee meeting, Péter Szijjártó said bilateral trade surpassed 100 million euros last year, and Hungarian companies were preparing to invest in Uzbekistan.

The two countries are also ready to triple their joint investment fund to 150 million dollars to ensure support for every project, Szijjártó said, according to a ministry statement.

Szijjártó said cooperation was expected to expand to the energy sector in the future. Uzbekistan’s electricity demand is expected to double by 2030. “Realistically, producing large quantities of cheap, sustainable, and safe energy is only possible through nuclear energy,” he said, adding that Hungary was supporting Uzbekistan’s nuclear program and that the training of Uzbek experts had already started there.

He said the two countries have also agreed that Uzbekistan would use Hungarian cooling technology should it sign a contract with Russia’s Rosatom to construct a new nuclear plant.

Szijjártó said Hungary’s friendly relations with Central Asia went back in 2010. Then, the country faced criticism from several Western countries “who have since changed their tune as it turned out that the region is rich in rare earths, and that there is a need for new transport routes between East and West,” Szijjártó said.

Later on Tuesday, Szijjártó met Laziz Kudratov, Uzbekistan’s minister for investment, industry, and trade. In a joint statement, the ministers said bilateral trade has grown by 86 percent since 2010, surpassing 100 million US dollars last year. He said that a Hungarian pharmaceutical company is preparing to build a factory in Uzbekistan, and preparations are in the home run for a 165 million US dollar chicken processing plant. Further, OTP Bank’s presence in the country offers Hungarian investors opportunities.