The strategic partnership between Serbia and Hungary is strengthened by further joint developments that will also improve energy security, Péter Szijjártó, State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said on Monday at a press conference in Szeged.
Péter Szijjártó met with Snezana Bogosavljevic Boskovic, Minister of Agriculture and Environmental Protection and co-chair of the joint economic committee, in Szeged, preceding the Serbian-Hungarian summit in Belgrade starting on Tuesday.
Download
The State Secretary said after the event that the strategic partnership between Hungary and Serbia is evident from the fact that bilateral trade achieved a new height last year, amounting to over EUR 1.6 billion.
He also added that this positive trend continues this year, and Q1 figures show further increase in our bilateral trade. There are 400 Serbian-Hungarian joint ventures operating in Serbia, and Hungary is the fifth largest investor and also the fifth largest exporter in the country.
The State Secretary said that an agreement was reached at the meeting to speed up the renovation process of the rail line connecting Budapest and Belgrade. This will have significant impact for two reasons: on the one hand, travel time will be cut from the current seven or eight hours to three hours in passenger transport. On the other hand, the renovated railway line will be the most competitive route for Chinese commodities arriving to Western Europe via Greece. Both Serbia and Hungary could earn significant income from transit traffic, he added.
Download
Péter Szijjártó said that the Hungarian Government is ready to invest into the construction works necessary for the renovation of the Szeged-Szabadka and Szabadka-Baja railway lines, and he informed his colleague accordingly at the meeting.
Potential economic developments along the border were also discussed on Monday. This followed an agreement concluded in 2012, which aimed at doubling the number of border crossing points by 2020. There were five border checkpoints at the time when the agreement was signed. Since that a new crossing point was opened at Ásotthalom, and the former Röszke crossing point will be re-opened at the beginning of 2015. Furthermore, a new crossing point to be opened at Bácsszentgyörgy is under construction on the Hungarian side as well. Two further border checkpoints will be constructed by 2020.
Energy security issues were also discussed at the meeting.
"As the Ukrainian crisis has clearly demonstrated, Hungary is obviously interested in the construction of the South Stream gas pipeline, since this would diversify the routes of transportation and Hungary would be significantly less exposed”, explained Szijjártó. This is a joint project with Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary and Austria, he added.
The possibility to connect the electricity networks of the two countries in order to improve energy security also emerged during the talks. The feasibility study about the connectivity of the two networks is under finalization.
Download
Snezana Bogosavljevic Boskovic, Minister of Agriculture and Environmental Protection announced at the press conference that the seventh meeting of the Serbian-Hungarian joint economic committee will be held in November.
The Minister expressed her opinion that there are especially good opportunities for cooperation in the field of SMEs.
She said the two countries have a number of joint interests and plans in the areas of agriculture, food, water management and environmental protection.
(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade/MTI)
