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The government continues to support the expansion of Hungarian companies abroad, as a means to boost economic cooperation with neighbouring countries, Péter Szijjártó, the minister of foreign affairs and trade, said in Csíkszereda (Miercurea Ciuc), in central Romania, on Friday.
Szijjártó spoke at the cornerstone-laying ceremony of a new plant and office complex of water industry company CONTROLSOFT-AUTOMATIKA. The 486 million forint (EUR 1.3 million) investment is supported by a 290 million forint government grant, and will create 45 new jobs, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
The new facility will highlight the success of the government’s strategy to support Hungarian companies’ investments abroad, he said. So far, 52 companies have received government support totalling at 73 billion forints, which has fostered 144 billion forints’ worth of investments, he said. As far as Hungarian investors in Romania are concerned, the government has supported 15 companies with 25 billion forints to carry out projects worth 60 billion forints, he said.
Szijjártó said that Hungarian-Romanian relations had witnessed several records over the past few years. Hungarian investments in Romania, for instance, have recently topped 2 billion euros, he said, adding that bilateral trade has jumped by 20 percent to nearly 10 billion euros, with 6 billion euros generated by Hungarian exports.
Hungarian communities in Romania and Romanians living in Hungary are the backbone of that success, he said.
Meanwhile, the investment is another step in handling the challenges facing both countries, Szijjártó said. “The two countries’ successes in environmental protection would be hard to imagine separately.”ű
Barna Tánczos, Romania’s environmental, water management and forestry minister, called Hungarian support for investments in Romania “extremely important”, and a token of even closer ties between the two countries. A water purifying technology is especially important as “Romania is currently not treating water at its real value,” he said.
featured image: Csíkszereda mayor Attila Korodi, Barna Tánczos and Szijjártó; image via Nándor Veres/MTI