On Thursday, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó held negotiations with the vice presidents of General Electric and Google, both members of the US-Hungarian Business Council.

Following the meetings, Mr. Szijjártó told Hungarian news agency MTI that during his meeting with International Vice President of Google Ross LaJeunesse an agreement was signed on the joint development of Hungarian start-ups and on the launching of a Hungarian training programme by the IT giant. The Minister also reported on the fifteen-point package that was developed on the basis of Hungary’s consultation on the Internet. According to plans, broadband internet will be available to every Hungarian household by 2018 and the Government would like to reduce the level of VAT on internet access from twenty-seven percent to eighteen percent. Since this is currently not possible according to European Union regulations, Hungary is in negotiation with the other countries of the Visegrád Group to initiate joint action to amend the related EU regulation.

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Mr. Szijjártó told the press that his meeting with General Electric’s Vice President for Government Relations John G. Rice was especially important in view of the fact that GE is the largest American investor in Hungary: twelve of the corporation’s twenty-one plants in Central Europe are situated in Hungary. The Foreign Minister was happy to report that General Electric continues to count on Hungary as a reliable long-term partner and is planning to increase its ratio of Hungarian suppliers, which already stands at a very respectable 78 percent.

The Hungarian Government is planning to establish a higher education, industrial university centre, probably in Eastern Hungary, and it was agreed during his negotiations with the GE Vice President that the company would be providing the industrial background for the project, Mr. Szijjártó told the press. Furthermore, Hungary is supporting GE’s expansion onto third markets via Hungary’s export-import bank (Eximbank) in the interests of facilitating the appearance of as many products manufactured in GE’s Hungarian plants as possible on these markets.

The Minister pointed out that the US-Hungarian Business Council, which was formed in February of this year with the support of the Hungarian Government, was established by fourteen American companies including General Electric, Citibank, Johnson & Johnson, MetLife and Eli Lilly who are already active in Hungary and are planning further investments. They have also played a role in enabling the Hungarian economy to break several records, including with regard to exports and its foreign trade surplus, as well as the level of foreign investment.

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According to Mr. Szijjártó, these results would not have been achieved without Hungarian-American economic cooperation. “Hungarian-American economic relations are definitely a success story”, the Minister said. Mr. Szijjártó also felt it important to add that economic cooperation, despite the occasional political dispute, is continuously expanding with 1600 American companies currently operating in Hungary and providing work for a hundred thousand Hungarians. The Foreign Minister also pointed out that the United States is now Hungary’s largest export destination outside the European Union. Eximbank has also opened a credit line to promote cooperation between Hungarian and American enterprises and facilitate a sustained increase in Hungarian exports to the US.

(MTI)