Hungarian and Turkish political leaders are able to talk to each other frankly, without hypocrisy, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said on Wednesday at the business forum titled Go Africa held in Istanbul after he had talks with Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlüt Cavusoglu and Turkish Minister of Trade Ruhsar Pekcan.
Mr Szijjártó highlighted that there is a high degree of trust between the leaders of the two countries, and the economy is a clear beneficiary of this. If this were not the case, the volume of trade between Hungary and Turkey would not have reached more than USD 3 billion in 2018, he added. In his address, the Hungarian minister pointed out that a new world order had come into being. Changes in the world economy and world politics have created entirely new circumstances in which those countries can be successful which are able to gather sufficient allies which are strong enough. For Hungary Turkey is such an ally, he said.
Regarding Africa, Mr Szijjártó pointed out that the continent has two faces all at once because, on the one hand, it offers almost endless opportunities. At the same time, however, it also embodies the most significant challenge of the past few decades in consequence of the mass migration processes originating from Africa. The Minister said that in the next 15 to 20 years one of the most crucial issues for Europe will be whether the African continent’s capacity for retaining its population will be able to grow as fast as its population. He stressed that for Hungary cooperation with Africa is, on the one hand, an opportunity to make a profit, while it also involves a great deal of responsibility as investments can enable the African people to find advancement in Africa. With investments, Hungarians and Turks can achieve that African people should no longer wish to leave their countries, but should find advancement in their native land, Mr Szijjártó stressed.
He indicated that in order for African people to be able to remain at home, they also need competitive skills and knowledge. In this context, Mr Szijjártó said that 1,422 African university students are studying in Hungary with Hungarian state scholarships so that, after having acquired competitive skills and knowledge, they may return home. The Hungarian Foreign Minister also highlighted that Hungary had opened a credit line worth USD 220 million with the Hungarian Eximbank for financing the joint Africa-oriented projects of Hungarian and Turkish businesses. If businesses draw on the entire credit line, Hungary will open another one, Mr Szijjártó announced.
The Minister drew attention to the fact that, according to the World Bank’s projection, the growth of the Sub-Saharan African region will steadily remain minimum half a per cent above the global growth rate in the next few years. At the same time, in the next 10 years the population of this region will increase by 35 per cent, meaning that its population will increase by 370 million. This growth will account for 40 per cent of the world’s population growth in the next 10 years, Mr Szijjártó pointed out, adding that if young people leave African countries in large numbers it will lead to the development a major destabilisation factor as it is talented young people that should build modern economies for the countries concerned.
The Go Africa business forum was organised by the Hungarian Export Promotion Agency (HEPA) and the Foreign Economic Relations Board of Turkey (DEIK) for the second time. On the occasion of the event, Mr Szijjártó met with Adnan Yildirim, Chief Executive Officer of Türk Eximbank and Adnan Polat, President of DEIK’s Turkey-Hungary Business Council. At the end of his official visit to Istanbul, the Hungarian Foreign Minister will have an audience with Archbishop of Constantinople and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I.
(Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister/MTI)
