Following the Hungarian delegations’ recent talks in Croatia, the foreign minister has said that economic cooperation between Hungary and Croatia benefits both countries overall, but there are areas where ties could be further boosted.
Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, who is accompanying Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on the visit to Zagreb, said that trade between the two countries exceeded 2 billion euros last year, noting a 420 million euro credit line opened by Eximbank to help Hungarian businesses boost their investments in Croatia.
Minister Szijjártó said the government’s 500 million HUF funding allocated annually to northern Croatia’s Drávaszög economic development scheme over the last two years has been increased to 1 billion HUF (3.1m EUR) for 2019. The minister said it will be used to support farm and enterprise development projects.
The minister also highlighted that with the acquisition of a Croatian bank, Hungary’s OTP bank would soon become the fourth largest financial player in Croatia.
Finally, Minister Szijjártó said he proposed increasing the number of border crossing points from the current seven to boost both countries’ competitiveness.