“The importance of Central Asia is increasing dynamically within Hungary’s Eastern Opening policy, in view of the fact that the region’s states can boast considerable results within the field of economy growth”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó emphasised at a press conference in Budapest on Thursday following a meeting with his Kyrgyzstani counterpart.
“The region’s rapid growth is creating an opportunity for Hungarian enterprises to search for new markets, the required financial conditions of which are more favourable than previously”, he added. With relation to foreign relations, Hungary’s chief diplomat stressed the importance of standing on several pillars, explaining: “The region’s increasing importance is clearly indicated by the fact that the European Union has developed a separate strategy for reinforcing cooperation with Central Asia”. “The President of Kyrgyzstan will be visiting Hungary at the end of this month, and today’s meeting was in preparation for those negotiations”, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade indicated. He told reporters that during the Kyrgyzstani President’s visit the parties will be signing a document that raises cooperation between the two states to the level of strategic partnership, and which will further expand the existing cooperation within the fields of the economy, commerce, education and international politics. With relation to the latter, he mentioned that the last state with which Hungary established a strategic partnership was China, thanks to which we have become the number one Central European target for capital investment on the part of high-tech Chinese enterprises. Mr. Szijjártó said the goal is for Kyrgyzstani-Hungarian relations to be the foundation for cooperation between the two regions.
The Minister said the parties had finalised their agreements on Hungarian-Kyrgyzstani investment protection and avoiding double taxation, which will make the operation of enterprise on the other country’s territory more secure and calculable, in addition to which the text of an agreement between the two countries’ chambers of commerce and industry has also been finalised, and will lead to the establishment of more direct channels between enterprises. He also said that an agreement has been reached on the establishment of a 50-million-euro Kyrgyzstani-Hungarian investment fund, which will facilitate investments in Kyrgyzstan on the part of Hungarian enterprises, as well as joint projects in third countries. “Kyrgyzstan, where Hungarian pharmaceutical company Richter is the flagship of the Hungarian economy, is one of the states towards which Hungarian exports were successfully increased during the first two quarters of 2020; the increase was 7 percent”, he mentioned. “In view of the fact that 383 students from Kyrgyzstan applied for Hungary’s university scholarship program this year, we are doubling the number of available scholarship places from the current 75 to 150”, he also stated. “Hungary is calling for the European Union to finalise and sign its partnership and cooperation agreement with Kyrgyzstan, which has been under negotiation for a long time, at the earliest opportunity. In addition, we agreed that Hungary will be supporting Kyrgyzstan’s bid for membership of the UN Security Council and also the UN Human Rights Council”, Mr. Szijjártó indicated.
Kyrgyzstani Foreign Minister Chingiz Aidarbekov emphasised: “Hungary is a very important partner to Kyrgyzstan, and the first European Union member mtate with which we are forming a strategi partnership”. Kyrgyzstan’s chief diplomat spoke about the fact that the parties have prepared highly important documents for signing at the upcoming meeting of heads of state at the end of September, highlighting the agreement that will facilitate economic and business cooperation. He expressed his hope that the parties will be able to sign the already initialled agreement on the expansion of cooperation between Kyrgyzstan and the European Union at the earliest opportunity. Mr. Aidarbekov expressed his gratitude with relation to Hungary’s student scholarship program, which is extremely popular in Kyrgyzstan, and suggested that cooperation within the field of education could also be expanded, as indeed within the baking sector, for instance, in view of the fact that Kyrgyzstan could be an excellent starting point for financial institutions looking to enter the region’s markets.