Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has held bilateral talks with Chinese head of state Xi Jinping in Shanghai.
The two leaders spoke about Hungary-China relations which have intensified in a number of fields over recent years. PM Orbán said the development of relations between Hungary and China in the past decade has surpassed all expectations.
The Chinese President highlighted that Hungary was among the first to establish diplomatic relations with China, and next year will mark the 70th anniversary of this event. PM Orbán said Hungary will celebrate this anniversary in a befitting manner and preparations have already been made in order to mark this milestone.
The Chinese President congratulated PM Orbán on Hungary’s eminent growth and stability observed in recent years, and at the same time invited the prime minister to attend next year’s high-level forum of the One Belt, One Road cooperation to be held in Beijing.
Both leaders are keen to promote the Belgrade-Budapest railway line, while the Chinese head of state welcomed the Chinese imports of high-quality Hungarian agricultural products.
What’s more, the prime minister along with Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó, Minister for Innovation and Technology László Palkovics and Minister of Agriculture István Nagy have also been in talks with Guo Ping, Deputy Chairman and Rotating Chairman of Huawei.
According to kormany.hu, the meeting took place in Shanghai on Monday, following the opening of the first China International Import Expo (CEII).
Guo said that Huawei is successful in Hungary, and has invested USD 1.2 billion in the country since it started operations there in 2005, launching its Europe Operations and Maintenance Centre, which is likely to expand its need for more engineers.
Huawei Technologies was the first Chinese company to sign a strategic partnership agreement with the Hungarian government in 2013. Huawei provides jobs for more than 2,000 people in Hungary, and its largest supply center outside China (for manufacture and logistics) is in Hungary.
Over the past five years, Huawei’s Hungarian subsidiary has paid 40 billion HUF in taxes into Hungary’s public finances – 17 billion HUF of this last year, when its sales amounted to 57 billion HUF.