“An important Japanese manufacturer of car parts is establishing a presence in North-East Hungary”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó announced in a telephone statement to Hungarian news agency MTI from Tokyo, where he concluded the related agreement on Wednesday.

“The company will be creating some 300 new workplaces in the north-eastern part of Hungary with an automotive industry investment of 13 billion forints (EUR 39.4 million)”, the Minister said, adding that the details of the investment will be made public in the upcoming weeks.

“Japan is the largest Asian investor in Hungary, as well as being Hungary’s third most significant trade partner in Asia. The country is the world’s largest importer of Hungarian food industry products, and particularly poultry meat and pork. However, major import restrictions have been introduced in Japan in recent years because of the bird flu and swine fever epidemics”, he stated. “These global problems have also had an extremely unfavourable effect on Hungarian agriculture and the Hungarian food industry”, he added.

With relation to his meeting with Japanese Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Etoh Taku, Mr. Szijjártó said: “While partly applying the principle of regionalisation, and partly acknowledging that African swine fever has only appeared in wild boar populations to date, we may soon find a solution to ensure that Hungarian pork can return to the Japanese market”.

The Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade also met with Minister for Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Kōichi Hagiuda.

(MTI)