The foreign minister has underlined how cooperation between Hungary and Serbia is excellent “even from a historical perspective” and yields great economic gains for both countries.
Speaking after a Hungary-Serbia summit earlier in the day,Péter Szijjártó said that bilateral trade had increased by 37 percent in the first half of 2021, and its turnover would have exceeded 3 billion euros by the end of the year. Hungary’s Eximbank has set up a credit line of 135 million euros to provide loans to promote trade cooperation between Hungarian and Serbian businesses, he said. The Hungarian government ensures financing for Hungarian companies to make investments abroad, the minister said, adding that Serbia “attracts the largest attention”.
The minister said that currently government-financed projects by 16 companies are under way in Serbia, adding that the grants amounted to HUF 20 billion (EUR 57.2m) and the projects were worth a combined 40 billion. So far, the government has assisted 14,000 ethnic Hungarian small and medium-sized enterprises in Serbia’s Vojvodina province, distributing grants totalling some HUF 60 billion, to aid projects worth 120 billion forints, Szijjártó said.
Representatives of the two countries also signed an agreement on improving links, under which a hovercraft service on the river Danube between Belgrade and Budapest will be launched before next summer.