Hungary looks to China to boost competitiveness

Peter Szijjarto, Hungary's minister of foreign affairs and trade. [Photo by Zhan Qianhui/chinadaily.com.cn]

Hungary has a strong desire to become a major player of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, as the two nations have just announced a comprehensive strategic partnership one day before the opening of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation.

"Hungary has always had the intention to implement effective and pragmatic cooperation with China," said Peter Szijjarto, Hungary's minister of foreign affairs and trade, while he attended the two-day forum on Sunday, acclaiming China's rapid economic growth in the context of a sluggish global economy.

"The European Union has been losing a lot of competiveness recently; we understand that the best way to regain the competiveness is to build up practical cooperation with this part of the world (Asia)." Szijjarto emphasized the significance of strengthening the link between the Belt and Road Initiative with Hungary's "Opening to the East" strategy.

Hungary, as China's biggest partner in Central Europe, has drawn the most Chinese investment in the region and is also Central Europe's largest exporter to China.

China has made investments worth more than $4 billion in Hungary, and Hungary's investment in China was more than $2.25 billion last year, according to Szijjarto.

"We would like to be Central Europe's pillar of the Belt and Road Initiative. In order to reach that, we have a common project with Serbia (Hungary-Serbia railway), which was highlighted in the speech of President Xi," Szijjarto said.

During President Xi's keynote speech at the opening ceremony, he mentioned that China is promoting complementarity between its development plan and that of Hungary, the "Opening to the East" strategy, and China has accelerated the building of a Hungary-Serbia railway.

Szijjarto deemed Xi's speech "very forward-looking" and valued the president's development proposal. Faced with sluggish global economic growth, he believed that it's time for strategic cooperation between Europe and Asia and promised to be as supportive as possible on the Euro-Asia economic cooperation.

While meeting the visiting Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Saturday, President Xi said the establishment of a comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Hungary echoes the reality of bilateral relations' development and ushers in a broad space for bilateral cooperation.