Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will pay an official visit to Budapest on 5 February, State Secretary for Foreign Affairs and External Economic Relations Péter Szijjártó announced at the Hungarian-Turkish Business Forum in Budapest yesterday.

The forum was organised by the Hungarian Investment and Trade Agency (HITA) and the Hungarian-Turkish joint economic committee, with the participation of more than 30 Turkish and some 40 Hungarian companies. The State Secretary said that Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's talks will focus on boosting bilateral trade in agriculture and transport. He noted that the volume of bilateral trade has grown fourfold over the past decade and reached nearly 2.5 billion dollars in 2011.

Turkey plays a key role in two areas that are strategically important from a European perspective: energy security and the transport of goods to Europe. Péter Szijjártó said that an intergovernmental agreement was signed in June 2012 declaring that Azerbaijani gas will reach Europe through Turkey. Regarding the transport of goods, according to an earlier agreement, Hungarian companies can participate in the development of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway line so that goods from the Caucasus and the Far East may reach Europe through Hungary.

He pointed out that cooperation with Turkey can be best deepened within the fields of energy, healthcare, car manufacturing, livestock breeding, IT and environmental protection. The Government taking continuous measures to create an attractive business environment, for instance by providing example investment grants, introducing the 16 per cent personal income tax system or by implementing a 10 per cent corporate tax.

Turkish Minister of Health Recep Akdağ also took part in the forum, and in his speech he expressed his hope that Turkish-Hungarian economic relations will thrive. Cooperation and joint ventures between Hungarian and Turkish businessmen may lead to new investments in both countries.

(Prime Minister's Office)