“Hungarian exports have broken their previous records every year since 2014”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said at a press conference to mark the signing of the foreign trade cooperation agreement concluded with the National Judicial Office in Budapest on Wednesday.

“In 2017, Hungarian exports increased to over 100 billion euros, and exceeded 105 billion last year. Hungary is ranked 88 in the world according to its population, but is in 34th place based on its export performance. Hungary is ranked 20th in global automotive industry exports, 19th in pharmaceutical exports and 15th in grain exports. World class products are reaching international markets thanks to the performance of the Hungarian people”, he added.

“Intellectual products are playing an increasingly important role in the competition for export markets, and there is increasing demand from developing countries. In addition to water management and transport development, the modernisation of public administration and  the judicial system are also being realised in projects being launched in Sri Lanka based on our 149-million-euro tied aid agreement. We are ahead of most of the world within this field”, the Minister said. “As part of the agreement signed with Sri Lanka, the intellectual products of the Hungarian digital judicial system are also being marketed at a value of 32 million euros. Digital courts are an export-capable Hungarian intellectual product, and amongst others includes a voice recognition system, and enables remote court hearings and the audio-visual recording of court proceedings”, Mr. Szijjártó added.

At the press conference, President of the National Judicial Office Tünde Handó told reporters: The Hungarian judicial system is “light years ahead of where it was a few years ago” with relation to the application of digital systems. Although the first two decades of the regime change did not “spoil” the courts, in recent years there has been a never before seen increase in funding, which has enabled major IT development projects. While in 2013 there were just 300 instances of electronic contact between client and court, this number increased to 1 million by 2018, in addition to which 78 courtrooms around the country are capable of holding remote hearings, with a further 112 being added to the list this year, she explained. “This is important because it allows clients to save time and money, improves the safety of victims and protected witnesses, and negates the need to transport dangerous criminals”, Ms. Handó told the press.

“The voice recognition system writes down the text based on a human voice, and electronic files enable proceeding that are independent of space and time in view of the fact that it affords all those involved free access to their files 24 hours-a-day”, the National Judicial Office President added. The agreement between the National Judicial Office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade concluded on Wednesday by Tünde Handó and Péter Szijjártó states that in future the two organisations will work together to promote and utilise electronic court solutions abroad.

(MTI)