“The value of Japanese working capital investments in Hungary could increase by up to 50 percent within the next two to three years”, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Parliamentary State Secretary Levente Magyar said in a telephone statement to Hungarian news agency MTI on Sunday following a two-day visit to Japan.

“The value of Japanese foreign direct investment (FDI) currently stands at some 1200 billion forints (EUR 3.8bn). This could increase significantly by up to 400-500 billion forints (EUR 1.3-1.6bn) thanks to new investments on the part of Japanese enterprises already operating here and investments on the part of Japanese companies planning to establish a presence in Hungary”, Mr. Magyar said.

The State Secretary told MTI he had held negotiations in three Japanese prefectures: Tokyo, Kyoto-Osaka and Shimane. The Hungarian delegation held talks with Japanese companies that are already present in Hungary or are planning to establish a presence in Hungary. In accordance with the agreements concluded, the names of these enterprises will be disclosed at a later date. There are currently 51 Japanese companies operating in Hungary, most of them within the automotive sector. “In addition to the automotive industry, the new investments are related to the fields of electro-mobility and the food industry, support the Industry 4.0 strategy and will be realised in knowledge-intensive sectors”, the State Secretary told the press.

The parties also discussed boosting Hungarian food exports; Hungary currently exports some 40 billion forints (EUR 127 million) of food industry products to Japan. Hungary would like to diversify the products it exports in view of the fact that 80 percent of exports to Japan on the part of Hungarian enterprises are currently comprised of meat products and pork. According to the State Secretary, this one-sided structure must be modified, and the Japanese market is open to Hungarian food industry products.

“It is not easy to enter the market, but a long-term and dependable partnership can be established with the Japanese”, he noted.

Mr. Magyar announced that an agreement had been concluded with food distribution chains on the appearance of Hungarian products in Japan over the upcoming weeks, which represents a major opportunity for Hungarian producers and food processors.

He also told MTI that he had visited the International Robot Exhibition, where Hungarian sensor manufacturer OptoForce also showcased its products, with relation to which there was major interest.

One goal of the State Secretary’s visit was to boost prefecture-level economic, cultural and tourism relations, with reference to which Mr. Magyar explained: “Japan is the world’s third largest economy following the United States and China, and in some cases its individual prefectures represent a greater economic power than that of Hungary”.

(MTI)