The policy of global opening serves the diversification of the Hungarian economy, and the goal is to draw resources from outside Europe into our economic growth, MFA State Secretary Zsolt Németh declared at a press conference on 3 February.

The policy of global opening serves the diversification of the Hungarian economy, and the goal is to draw resources from outside Europe into our economic growth, MFA State Secretary Zsolt Németh declared at a press conference on 3 February.

Download
Zsolt Németh stressed that 80 percent of Hungary’s economic and trade relations are with the European Union, so it is timely to promote more diversification. The Hungarian State Secretary pointed out that there was no contradiction between Hungary’s western identity and its improving economic relations with Eastern countries, since leading Western states also make serious efforts to develop their relations with the emerging markets.

Mr. Németh stated that another special goal was to develop economic cooperation with North America, since trade turnover with the U.S. is currently less than 2 billion US dollars-a-year. The situation will improve when the EU-US free trade agreement is concluded, he added.

State Secretary Németh recalled that Hungary used to have fruitful relations with several African and Asian countries in the seventies and eighties, and the foreign policy of the current Hungarian Government intended to rely on and take advantage of these traditional ties. Several countries today regard Hungary as the gateway to the European Union, and there are also many opportunities to be exploited in that, he added. 

Zsolt Németh claimed that the re-opening of Hungarian missions (e.g. in Chile) is an important instrument of the policy of global opening, and the nomination of Hungarian ambassadors-at-large to develop relations with Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa was also a new instrument to promote global opening.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs)