The Hungarian Government is targeting 4 percent economic growth by 2016, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said at a Chinese-Hungarian business forum held at the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) headquarters in Beijing.

Addressing an audience of 250-300 businesspeople, the Prime Minister called Central Europe the growth engine of the European Union, adding that Hungary is one of Europe’s most competitive economies, since it now has a major production centre as well as a significant R+D network. He stressed that companies that are present on the Hungarian market are also present on the 500-million-strong EU market.

DownloadPhoto: Barna Burger

Prime Minister Orbán noted that Hungary's economic policy was often called unorthodox, but in his view, that policy is what has made the country competitive.

Among the Government's measures, he mentioned the 16 percent personal income tax, the low corporate tax rate and the labour-based economy. In connection with this, he highlighted the aim of full employment, i.e. pushing the unemployment rate down to 3-4 percent.

The Prime Minister drew the attention of Chinese businesspeople to water and waste management, transport organisation, managing environmental damage, the automotive industry, engineering services, the energy sector, tourism, medical instruments, the pharmaceutical and food industry and farming technologies as fields of Hungarian expertise and promising areas for economic cooperation.

DownloadPhoto: Barna Burger

He also announced that Hungary will increase the number of state-funded scholarships offered to Chinese students by 200 as of September 2014.

Prime Minister Orbán held talks with the Governor of the Bank of China, during which it was decided that the Bank will set up its central European regional centre in Budapest and will establish a network of branch offices for Chinese companies operating in Central Europe.

(Prime Minister's Office)