The foreign minister has signed an economic cooperation agreement between Hungary and the US state of Ohio, which will yield hundreds of jobs in high-tech, high value-added industries in Hungary.
Péter Szijjártó held talks with US company heads on Wednesday and signed the memorandum of understanding on Hungary-Ohio economic cooperation with Director of the Ohio Development Services Agency Lydia Mihalik.
The minister told MTI that cooperation with the US economy in recent years played an important part in Hungary being able to better attract investors and boost exports. The US continues to be Hungary’s most important export market outside the European Union and the US is the second largest investor in Hungary, with over 1,700 firms employing some 105,000 people, he added.
Minister Szijjártó said the car industry, a major sector of Ohio’s economy, plays a key role in cooperation, adding that twelve companies based in Ohio had already invested in Hungary and they employ 2,600 people locally.
The minister pointed out that the above mentioned companies include some of the biggest in the United States, such as Procter and Gamble, Owens-Illinois, Dana, Eaton and Goodyear.
Minister Szijjártó said some 200,000 Americans with Hungarian roots live in Ohio, more than in any other US state.