Hungarian and Chinese government officials met in Budapest on Friday to discuss cooperation on the 2.89 billion dollar upgrade of the Budapest-Belgrade railway line State Secretary for Foreign Affairs and External Economic Relations Péter Szijjártó said.
The project has two strategic goals, to boost Central European cooperation with the western Balkans and to strengthen Hungary's aim to become a transit country for Chinese products on their way to western Europe, he said after meeting a delegation from China's National Development and Reform Commission in Budapest.
Download
The Greek port of Piraeus is already operated by a Chinese company and Chinese goods will be transported via the western Balkans to western Europe, he said. The modernisation of a 40-kilometre Serbian section of the 374-kilometre Budapest-Belgrade railway line has been completed and the rest of the line awaits an upgrade to enable fast-speed travel on an electric dual-track line, he added.
State-owned Hungarian Development Bank MFB will lead negotiations on the financing to optimise Chinese participation in the project, Mr Szijjártó said.
Download
Last year, at the Eastern and Central Europe-China summit in Warsaw, China proposed that it would start a 10-billion-dollar fund to finance developments in the Central and Eastern European region. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, his Chinese counterpart Li Keqiang and Serbian counterpart Ivica Dacic signed an agreement on cooperation on the rail line in Bucharest on November 25.
(Prime Minister’s Office)
