Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has travelled to Shenzhen and visited an exhibition on developments in Guangdong Province and met top business executives.
According to MTI, the prime minister held talks with Meng Fanli, the city’s party secretary, and Meng briefed the Hungarian delegation about opportunities for economic and business cooperation. PM Orbán also met Wang Chuanfu, founder and chairman of China’s BYD, the world’s biggest electric vehicle producer. At the BYD car plant, PM Orbán was briefed about the company’s structure and its operations in Hungary — the bus factory in Komárom and the battery assembly plant in Fót — and was shown BYD’s latest electric car models. Meanwhile, the prime minister also met Ren Zhengfei, the founder and chief executive of Huawei, at the company’s headquarters. The long-term effect of digitalization on society, the economy and security were subjects of discussion, and they agreed that countries that lag behind in the development of data-based info-communication and data transmission networks would be at a global disadvantage for decades. PM Orbán noted that Huawei plays a key part in Hungary’s digitalization and was one of the first large Chinese companies to make a major investment in Hungary.
Hungary continues to provide a balanced and open economic and investment environment for Chinese companies, the prime minister said after he was introduced to Huawei’s latest technologies and innovation endeavors. Huawei employs around 2,000 people in Hungary in manufacturing for European markets, logistics and research and development. Huawei said it is rolling out the latest Industry 4.0 technology at its energy optimisation inverter plant in Kapuvár, in north-western Hungary, still in the testing stage, and would undertake expansion there early in 2024. Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister, Márton Nagy, the economic development minister, and Csaba Lantos, the energy minister also attended the meeting.