“No road is long with good company,” Minister for National Economy quoted the Turkish proverb at a Hungarian-Turkish Business Forum organized to commemorate the month of Ramadan. At the event, the Minister presented awards honouring the most successful members and partners in 2013 of Aktiv, an association of Hungarian and Turkish businesspeople.
Aktiv has been operating in the country for 19 months with forty members who employ as a whole more than one thousand people and generate annual turnover of some HUF 30bn.
In his speech, the Minister praised the economic achievements which Turkey has attained over the past years: in a decade the country’s economy has become the sixth largest within Europe as GDP has increased six-fold. He stressed that Turkey is Hungary’s fifth largest non-EU trade partner and bilateral trade turnover increased five-times since 2003. Last year, trade turnover growth was as much as 26 percent.
Summarizing the results of the Hungarian economy, Mihály Varga pointed out that nowadays the country is in a better position than it was any time over the past decade: its financial and fiscal fundamentals are sound. In Q1 2014, GDP was up by 3.5 percent year-on-year, and the level of employment is the highest since 1992. The number of people in employment is more than 4 million in Hungary, up by some 400 thousand since the cabinet change. Private sector investment soared by 26 percent, the best figure in a decade.
The Minister expressed hope that the significant improvement of Hungary’s economic performance is creating a favourable investment environment. As far as foreign trade is concerned, Hungary is aiming to boost exports and help SMEs expand on international markets, among others on the Turkish one.
On the basis of achievements in 2013, Ábrahám és Társa Kft (a car components manufacturer), Rödl&Partner Kft (an auditing and account company) and Hilal Kft (operator of a Turkish restaurant chain in Budapest) received the “Member of the Year” award. In the “Investor of the Year” category, awards were presented to Duna Döner Kft (a food processing company) and Orchidea Iskola. The “Most Successful Enterprise of the Year” award was handed over to Agrosprint Kft (an exporter of frozen fruits and vegetables), while Katalin Varga Dr, who represented Settlers Kft (a company managing the administrative work for labour permits and permanent residence) received the “Businesswoman of the Year” award. The Hungarian Logistics Association was the awardee of the “Partner Institution of the Year” category.
(Ministry for National Economy)
