Hungarian officials, scholars, and media professionals have expressed their anticipation for greater cooperation between Hungary and China during Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit to the Central European country, seeking to strengthen business ties, technological collaboration, and people-to-people connections.
President Xi arrived in Budapest on Wednesday for the state visit at the invitation of Hungarian President Tamas Sulyok and Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Marton Nagy, Hungarian Minister for National Economy, expressed the desire to strengthen business ties and technological collaboration with China.
"We want to connect Hungarian and Chinese companies to improve relationships in logistics as well, and of course, digitalization is very important as well, and AI and so on. We want to stay open for investors and we believe in connectivity. This is not just related to trade or investment, but people-to-people friendship and connections," said Nagy.
Erno Pate, president of the Hungarian-Chinese Chamber of Economy, said that Xi's visit would catalyze a new era of economic engagement under the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
"I expect that economic relations will develop much more smoothly and vividly than in the first ten years of the BRI. So with this presidential visit, it's a good occasion to establish the basis of new development," said Pate.
Salat Gergely, lead researcher of the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs, underscored Hungary's aspirations to attract substantial Chinese investment to bridge the gap with Western Europe.
"I think the most important is the economic and technological cooperation. That is very important for Hungary because Hungary's national aim is to catch up with the Western Europe. For that we need FDI. We're quite sure that in the coming years, China will become our No.1 investor. We really need those jobs. We really need those investments. And they bring us high technology here that we like," said Gergely.
Kovacs Tamas, CEO of ATV Media Group in Hungary, commended the steadily strengthening bilateral ties over the past decade under the BRI.
"The two countries getting close and close in the last ten years started with the BRI initiated by Mr. Xi Jinping and the Chinese government announced this initiative in 2013. Of course, the Hungarian government announced the Opening to the East Policy. This is a good basis for the cooperation of the two countries," said Tamas.
Hungary is the last leg of Xi's current three-nation European tour, which has previously taken him to France and Serbia.
Xi's state visit to Hungary opens up rosy prospects for stronger cooperation
