Besides the energy sector, education is also a priority area of the Hungarian-Kazakh cooperation.Continue reading
Hungary and Kazakhstan have set a goal for bilateral trade turnover to reach one billion dollars per year as soon as possible. “We have every chance to achieve this,” Finance Minister Mihály Varga said after the sixth meeting of the Hungarian-Kazakh Strategic Council, co-chaired by Kazakh Foreign Minister Murat Nurtleu. Mihály Varga stressed that in the first eight months of this year, trade turnover reached USD 465 million.
“The fact that around 240 companies registered in Hungary are already exporting to Kazakhstan, along with the existing successful projects, show that the direction we have started is the right one,” said the Hungarian Finance Minister, also co-chairman of the Kazakh-Hungarian Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation, the Hungarian-Kazakh Parliamentary Friendship Group, and the Hungarian-Kazakh Strategic Council.
As an example, Mihály Varga mentioned that
in a few weeks, MOL’s natural gas production will start in northwest Kazakhstan, and Hungarian companies can also boast extraordinary successes in the health sector.
Hungarian pharmaceuticals rank sixth in the Kazakh pharmaceutical market in terms of sales, and the largest private laboratories in Kazakhstan have Hungarian blood and urine analysis equipment: the Hungarian company that specializes in this field sold USD 1,150,000 worth of tools to Kazakhstan last year, he pointed out.
He added that the Hungarian government announced its policy of opening up to the East in 2010, which has proved to be a good strategy and a successful economic policy. He noted that the difficulties caused by the Russian-Ukrainian war should also open up new opportunities, as the role of Central Asia and the Caucasus region in trade between China and Europe has clearly increased.
At the meeting, the Hungarian and Kazakh sides signed three cooperation agreements.
Hungarian and Kazakh companies agreed on the application of Hungarian technologies in Kazakhstan and on the implementation of a model fish farm in Kazakhstan.
Via MTI, Featured image: Facebook/Varga Mihály