The foreign minister has highlighted how Hungarian-Serbian relations are at peak strength on the political, economic, trade and investment fronts.
Following a meeting of the Hungarian-Serbian mixed economic committee in Budapest, Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, noted that Serbia is Hungary’s top partner in the Western Balkans.
According to MTI, the minister added that mutual respect forms the basis of friendly relations between the two countries, with bilateral trade reaching 2.5 billion euros last year.
Goran Knežević, Serbia’s economy minister, revealed that Hungary is Serbia’s sixth most important trading partner and its 13th biggest investor.
Minister Szijjártó noted Hungarian oil and gas company MOL’s over 110 million euro investment in Serbia, and acquisition of a Vojvodina bank and the Serbian subsidiary of Société Générale by OTP, Hungary’s leading bank.
The minister said the government has also provided a HUF 46 billion (EUR 138m) grant to support Hungarian farmers and entrepreneurs in Serbia’s northernmost Vojvodina province resulting in investments worth HUF 86 billion forints.
Finally, Hungary’s Eximbank has opened a 110 million euro credit line to finance bilateral business cooperation, 50 million of which has already been laid aside for the upgrade of the Szeged-Subotica railway line.