Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Turkish Trade Minister Mehmet Muş signed the founding statement of a new Hungarian-Turkish economic and trade committee in Ankara on Tuesday. Addressing a joint press conference after the signing, Minister Szijjártó said bilateral trade turnover reached a record 4 billion US dollars in 2021, a 15 percent increase over the 2020 figure. Hungarian exports to Turkey came to 2.5 billion dollars last year, up 21 percent from 2020, he said.
As regards the development of Hungarian-Turkish economic cooperation, Minister Szijjártó said the two countries had set up an operative working group with a view to boosting economic and trade cooperation. Also, the Hungarian government is supporting a HUF 100 billion (EUR 266.5m) investment by Turkey’s Sisecam Group in Kaposvár, in south-western Hungary, with a HUF 14 billion grant, he said. Meanwhile, Hungary’s Eximbank has opened a 105 million euro credit line to help finance Hungarian-Turkish business cooperation. Minister Szijjártó noted that Hungarian health industry producer Medicor was building a neonatal incubator plant in Turkey with the support of the Hungarian government, adding that the government was helping Hungarian businesses expand into the Turkish market in the areas of water management, the printing industry and the construction of power plants.
On another subject, Minister Szijjártó noted that 50 Turkish customs officers were posted on the Hungary-Romania and Hungary-Serbia borders in order to ensure the smooth flow of freight traffic. He also noted that the Turkish, Bulgarian, Serbian and Hungarian ministers in charge of transport will establish a railway working group after east-west shipping has been faced with significant challenges and has become partially impossible because of the situation in Ukraine. Minister Szijjártó also said that because of Turkey’s expanding role on the global political and economic stage, Hungary will increase the number of its diplomatic staff in Ankara.
Photo credit: Facebook/Szijjártó Péter