Minister of State for Economic Regulation Kristóf Szatmáry earlier today held talks with Deputy Foreign Minister of Mexico Juan Manuel Gómez-Robledo. The objective of their meeting was to promote SMEs to acquire a larger share in bilateral trade.

Kristóf Szatmáry, also Hungarian Co-President of the Joint Committee for Mexican-Hungarian Economic Cooperation, said at the meeting that the Government places special emphasis on improving economic relations with Latin-American countries, and therefore also considers Mexico to be an important partner. One of the key objectives of the Government’s Foreign Economic Strategy is to assist Hungarian enterprises in gaining market share on international markets and to further enhance the export performance of the Hungarian economy.

On the list of Hungary’s trade partners regarding exports and imports in 2012, Mexico ranked as the 28th and the 30th, respectively. As far as bilateral trade turnover is concerned, in the past couple of years Mexico was Hungary’s number one trade partner in Latin-America, as almost half of Hungarian exports for the Latin-American region head to Mexico. The goal of the Government is to increase the share of SMEs in trade between the two countries, and as a result of the latest discussions the Mexican partner has confirmed its support of such efforts.

At the consultations, the main cornerstones of the development strategy of bilateral economic relations were also outlined, among them cooperation within the fields of science and technology, agriculture, the food industry, the car industry, medical apparatus and appliances as well as on energy. As part of the efforts aimed at developing bilateral trade relations, the next session of the Mexican-Hungarian Economic Cooperation Joint Committee will be held in autumn of this year, when a business and investment forum will also accompany the event. The business forum will provide an opportunity for domestic SMEs to bolster their exports, fortify their business relations and establish partnerships with Mexican enterprises.

(Ministry for National Economy)