“Hungarian-Czech economic cooperation has moved up a level recently”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said on Friday in Prague.

“Based on the current growth figures, trade flow is expected to approach ten billion euros by the end of the year, which clearly indicates the new dimension of bilateral relations”, the Minister highlighted.

“Several Hungarian enterprises have achieved major success on the Czech market, and for instance MOL already operates 306 petrol stations in the country and has become the market’s second largest fuel retailer and wholesaler”, the politician said.

“The Czech Republic is also the second largest market for MOL”, he added.

“Richter and Egis both have products that are among the leaders on the Czech pharmaceuticals market, and Czech company Agrofert has acquired ownership in Hungarian baking industry, agricultural and food industry enterprises”, the Foreign Minister told the press.

The politician also mentioned that the PPF group had purchased Telenor’s Hungarian division, and Skoda recently won a tender to supply 21 trolleybuses to Budapest.

In addition, he said that in his view bilateral defence industry cooperation has also entered a new dimension in view of the fact that Hungary has purchased 2 training and 2 reconnaissance aircraft from the Czech Republic, and the training of Hungarian fighter pilots is also being performed by Czech professionals.

“Based on the handgun production licences purchased from the Czech Republic, in the first phase 200 thousand firearms will be manufactured in Hungary beginning in January”, he stated.

Mr. Szijjártó also spoke about the fact that the two countries are also considering major joint investment projects, including the planned high-speed railway line connecting the capital cities of the Visegrád Group (V4) countries. “The parties have agreed that the feasibility studies will be finalised by 2020, and a quadrilateral working group has already been set up”, he said, adding that a budget of one-and-a-half billion forints (EUR 4.6 million) had been set aside for the preparation of the feasibility study.

“The two countries are also cooperating within the field of nuclear energy; five Czech enterprises are involved in the operation of the Paks Nuclear Power Plant”, Mr. Szijjártó said.

(MTI)