“Hungary has been awarded the right to organise the 2017 World Export Development Forum, so Budapest will be hosting the event next year”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó told Hungarian news agency MTI.
Mr. Szijjártó, who is attending the 16th World Export Development Forum (WEDF) in Sri Lanka, stressed: this is a major acknowledgement for Hungary.
“Hungary is an open economy and the performance of the Hungarian national economy is fundamentally determined by external factors such as investment and exports. Accordingly, any event that increases Hungary’s visibility within the field of foreign trade contributes to the country’s economic growth”, the Foreign Minister explained.
Mr. Szijjártó told the press that he had held bilateral talks in addition to the speech he gave at the WEDF. He met with the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka and with the country’s Minster of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Trade, as well as with the Vice-President of the Asian Infrastructure and Investment Bank.
“After the end of the civil war and the reconstruction that followed the tsunami, Sri Lanka’s economy gained new momentum. Our cooperation has excellent references because Hungary undertook a significant role in post-tsunami reconstruction, in addition to which Budapest Waterworks has been one of the most important participants of the country’s water management system since 2006”, the Minister indicated.
“The construction of two hydroelectric power plants will soon be completed in Sri Lanka, in which the company is the main contractor; the total value of the projects is some 51 million euros”, he added.
Mr. Szijjártó highlighted the fact that the parties had agreed water management will remain the flagship of bilateral economic relations. “In Sri Lanka, only 47 per cent of people have access to piped water, and the government would like to increase this ratio to 70 percent and will be giving Budapest Waterworks a major role in completing the required development projects”, he explained.
“This also requires a suitable financing background, and Hungary’s Eximbank has opened a 68.8 million U.S. Dollar credit line in the interests of financing the export of Hungarian technology to Sri Lanka”, he said, stressing that Sri Lanka is also counting on Hungarian agriculture and food industry technologies.
“In the interests of expanding economic cooperation between the European Union and Sri Lanka, Hungary is calling on the EU to award Sri Lanka most favoured partner status and renew talks on bilateral investment”, the Minister explained.
“An agreement was also reached on the act that Sri Lanka will be supporting Hungary’s application for membership of the UN Human Rights Council for the period 2017-2019”, he told the press.
Mr. Szijjártó also announced that in the interests of providing a better foundation for economic cooperation, Hungary has offered twenty scholarship places for Sri Lankan students to study at Hungarian universities.
The Foreign Minister also mentioned that Hungary was the first European country to conclude a cooperation agreement with China with relation to its “One Belt, One Road” development strategy, of which Sri Lanka is also one of the most important elements within the Indian Ocean region, and this is another reason why the country plays an important role in Hungarian foreign economic strategy.
During his speech at the World Export Development Forum, Mr. Szijjártó said: “The global economy is moving forward into a completely new phase and the significance of digital transformation is greater than that of previous industrial revolutions. Accordingly, every country must take the necessary steps to ensure that it can be successful in this new economic-industrial-commercial age, and this is especially true for countries that have open economies”.
“In the interests of success, Hungary has placed its foreign policy in the service of foreign trade and is helping people become capable of playing their part in trade that is realised on new digital platforms via its Digital Hungary programme, in addition to which Hungary is supporting the conclusion of free trade agreements”, Mr. Szijjártó highlighted.