Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade negotiated with the Japanese Foreign Minister and the Minister of Agriculture during his one and a half day visit in Tokyo, and held talks with the executives of several Japanese companies with operating investments in Hungary about further investments and creating new jobs in Hungary.
The minister informed Hungarian News Agency MTI about this over the phone on Wednesday.
He said that he had reviewed geopolitical and bilateral issues with Minister of Foreign Affairs Kisida Fumio.
entral Europe is becoming increasingly important for Japan, with regard to the fact that V4 cooperation with Japan is especially fruitful, emphasised Péter Szijjártó.
The East Asian security situation was also on the agenda. It is very important for Hungary that the region be peaceful and stable, thus enabling Hungary to better cooperate with the countries of the region, which are its important trading partners, he said.
“Japan considers restarting its closed-down nuclear power plants, therefore we agreed to start expert-level negotiations on a potential cooperation agreement on nuclear safety between the two countries, with special regard to the fact that our country is especially successful in the field of nuclear training, security and education”, the minister said.
The parties also touched on the issue of free trade agreement between the European Union and Japan during the negotiations. Hungary is interested in the successful, early conclusion of these negotiations and in reaching an ambitious agreement that would enable Hungary to further increase its exports to Japan. Hungarian products and services are already competitive, and the more favourable the regulations of the free trade agreement are, the more competitive our exports will be, emphasised Péter Szijjártó.
He said that last year Hungarian exports to Japan had reached USD 600 million, which had increased by 6.5% in the first eight months of this year.
An agreement was reached at the negotiations in that the two countries will further develop their economic relations. Japan is already the greatest Asian green field investor in Hungary: 149 Japanese companies have 25 000 employees and investments of USD 3.5 billion, and Japanese companies are second after German companies in terms of automotive investments, he added.
The minister also held talks with several Japanese corporate executives about new investments in Hungary. Based on these negotiations, he hopes to make several announcements about job-creating investments in Hungary in the near future, especially in the field of automotive supply industry.
Szijjártó called it a great progress for Hungarian agricultural exports that Japan now allows pork imports from the entire territory of Hungary, as it was announced by Japanese Minister of Agriculture Nisikava Koja at their negotiation. This is important because Japan is the biggest market for Hungarian food products outside Europe; in the first eight months of this year food exports reached USD 100 million, up by 65% compared to the previous year, he emphasised.
“Pork, and within that Mangalitza pork, is the flagship of our agricultural exports to Japan. It opens up new avenues for other products and gives boost to our agricultural exports, which is also important because our agricultural exports lost due to EU sanctions against Russia and the Russian counter sanctions can be partly compensated on the Japanese market. This is a very demanding market and Hungarian products can be competitive”, emphasised Péter Szijjártó.
(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade)
