Economic cooperation between Kazakhstan and Hungary grows stronger year after year, and the upcoming phase in this process may be the establishment of Hungarian-Kazakh joint ventures and mutual investment projects, Minister of Finance Mihály Varga said at a Hungarian-Kazakh business forum in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.
There is strong demand in Kazakhstan for the expertise of and the technology used by Hungarian enterprises, and the fact that the number of members in the business delegation travelling to the forum was this year higher than ever is proof of this, the Minister said.
Kazakhstan is Hungary’s major strategic partner in Central Asia, and efforts aiming to foster economic relations are bearing fruits, he pointed out. The volume of trade between the two countries has been rising steadily for three years now, and last year the volume of the trade of goods was up by more than 25 percent, exceeding USD 600 million in total, but the year before growth was as high as almost 200 percent, Mihály Varga noted.
Speaking of investment relations between the two countries, Mihály Varga said that Hungary is providing economic growth which beats the EU average, skilled labour force, decreasing taxes and an excellent logistical location for Kazakh enterprises but MOL for example has been operating successfully in Kazakhstan for more than 10 years. Kazakhstan has similar attributes in the region, therefore the Government of Hungary provides various incentives for enterprises aiming to enter the Kazakh market but a direct flight (between the two capital cities), launched two years ago and used already by more than 50 000 passengers, has also been contributing to the improvement of bilateral relations.
At the business forum, Mihály Varga is to sign an MoU on economic cooperation with Minister of National Economy Ruslan Dalenov. Besides this document there were ten other agreements concluded in the field of education, culture, water management, agriculture and business cooperation.
(Ministry of Finance)
