At the meeting of the Hungarian-Russian Joint Economic Committee on Wednesday in Budapest, it was agreed that the agriculture ministries of the two countries would begin preparations for the establishment of joint enterprises in order to increase agricultural trade, State Secretary for Foreign Affairs and External Economic Relations of the Prime Minister’s Office Péter Szijjártó said at the press conference following the meeting.

State Secretary Szijjártó, who is also Government Commissioner for Hungarian-Russian Relations, negotiated with Russian Agriculture Minister Nikolai Fyodorov about, amongst others, joint enterprises, roaming charges and visa issues.

Mr. Szijjártó also reported that a strategic agreement has been concluded between the Hungarian Export-Import Bank (Eximbank) and Sberbank of Russia, and also between Eximbank and OTP Bank’s Russian subsidiaries, as a result of which more sources will be available for financing joint venture businesses than ever before. Last year, Eximbank facilitated Hungarian exports to Russia with loans totalling EUR 67.4 million.

Mr. Szijjártó emphasised that the success of Government's policy of opening toward the East, the main pillar of which is the continuous strengthening of Russian-Hungarian relations, is of key importance to Hungary. He recalled that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in January and agreed that foreign trade turnover between the two countries should be increased such that the current negative balance (from a Hungarian viewpoint) is equalled out.

Trade between Hungary and Russia totalled USD 11.6 billion last year, consisting of USD 3.3 billion in Hungarian exports and USD 8.3 billion in Hungarian imports, mainly due to the import of energy products. The State Secretary pointed out that trade between the two countries increased significantly in the first five months of this year, by 8 percent between January and May, and Hungarian exports grew by 11 percent, meaning the negative balance decreased somewhat. Food and agricultural exports, determined as the source for the increase in exports overall, grew by more than 20 percent exceeding USD 125 million – Mr. Szijjártó added.

The State Secretary indicated that agriculture and the food industry currently have only an 8 percent share of exports from Hungary to Russia, so these two areas are the most important sources for increasing Hungarian exports.

Mr. Szijjártó explained that the state-owned Hungarian National Trading House Zrt. is negotiating with the company group that has opened a trading house in Moscow about partial state acquisition of the trading house, in order to better help Hungarian small and medium-sized enterprises to succeed on the Russian market.

He also mentioned that parallel to the meeting of the Joint Committee, negotiations about amendments to the two countries’ aviation agreement have also begun. Wizz Air launches its Budapest-Moscow flight next week, which will take off daily from 23 September, he added.

It was also decided that the two governments would begin negotiations immediately about decreasing roaming charges and also on increasing the number of Russian university students studying in Hungary with scholarships from 54 to 200; negotiations on the related memorandum are already in progress.

With relation to tourism, Mr. Szijjártó said Russia is the fourth country in terms of the number of tourists that visit Hungary.

Cooperation between the two countries in the construction industry is still active but the State Secretary asked the Minister to help so that more Hungarian companies can participate in the infrastructure projects leading up to the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Nikolai Fyodorov recalled the agreement according to which new momentum should be given to economic relations. He pointed out that the Hungarian trading house has already opened in Moscow and the establishment of more is planned throughout Russia. Cooperation on higher education is also strong between the two countries: 12 agricultural universities are in regular contact with Hungarian higher education institutions.

Russia is trying to help those businessmen and interested parties who see Russia as a partner – Mr. Fyodorov stressed.

Following the press conference and after signing the minutes of the meeting, Rector of the Southwest State University of the Russian Federation Sergey Yemelyanov signed a Memorandum of Understanding with International Vice-Rector of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics Péter Moson on details regarding cooperation on education and science between the two institutions and student exchanges.

(Prime Minister’s Office)