Hungary aims to strengthen its role as an economic meeting point, so that Eastern and Western capital and high tech can be linked here.Continue reading
Continuing the work of the past decade, we will further strengthen Hungary’s financial role in the Central and Eastern European region, Mihály Varga stressed after receiving Lin Jingzhen, Executive Vice President of the Bank of China, in his office.
The finance minister said that thanks to the policy of opening up to the East, Hungary is now a bridgehead in the economic cooperation between Europe and Asia, and the country is the number one destination for Chinese investors in Central and Eastern Europe.
The politician pointed out that an increasing number of Chinese companies are deciding to invest in Hungary and to establish their regional headquarters here, and in 2023, China again attracted the highest number of foreign investments to Hungary.
Among these, CATL‘s HUF 3,000 billion (EUR 7.5 billion), Huayou Cobalt‘s HUF 520 billion (EUR 1.3 billion), EVE Power‘s HUF 400 billion (EUR 1 billion) and BYD‘s investments in Szeged (southern Hungary) worth several billion euros are noteworthy,
the minister underlined.
Mihály Varga stressed that China is now Hungary’s 9th most important trading partner according to last year’s figures, with bilateral trade in goods worth more than USD 12 billion,
making it Hungary’s most important partner outside Europe.
In recent years, several Chinese banks have chosen Hungary as the location for their operations, showing that Chinese financial institutions have confidence in the Hungarian economy.
He emphasized that in 2021, Hungary was the first country in the world to successfully launch a green panda bond on the Chinese market, issuing a green government bond worth 1 billion RMB (Chinese yuan), or about HUF 50 billion (EUR 126 million), with the Bank of China acting as lead manager.
Via MTI; Featured image via Facebook/Varga Mihály