State Secretary for External Economic Relations and Foreign Affairs Péter Szijjártó declared that Hungarian-American economic relations will expand significantly in the near future, after meeting in the United States with among others the directors of Protector and Gamble, IBM, Citigroup, GE, Honeywell, Cargill, the Republican leader of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the U.S. House of Representatives and the leaders of the Hungarian Congressional Caucus.

The State Secretary said that not only the Hungarian government, but also American companies consider Hungarian-American economic cooperation to be a success story, emphasising that American investments in Hungary totalled nine billion dollars by the end of last year. Six hundred American companies operate in Hungary, where they have created 40 thousand new workplaces.

According to the State Secretary, American companies regard the Hungarian investment environment as positive and the Hungarian Investment Trade Agency is currently negotiating with eight American companies with regard to their expansion in Hungary, new production units, new factories and hundreds of new workplaces.

State Secretary Péter Szijjártó emphasised that the main sectors that play an important role in the expansion include automotive industry suppliers, the producers of everyday consumer goods, the information technology industry, the food industry and the electric power industry.

The State Secretary pointed out that the Hungarian investment environment is particularly favourable for American companies because of the low level of personal income tax, the flexible Labour Code and the highly skilled Hungarian workforce.

Besides the economy, the most successful field of Hungarian-American cooperation is security policy, because Hungarian participation in Afghanistan and in the West Balkan stabilisation process is much appreciated by the United States, he said.

(Prime Minister's Office)