Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó had talks with the executives of the corporation Huawei in Riga on the occasion of the summit of the leaders of China and Eastern-Central-Europe, Bertalan Havasi, the head of the Press Office of the Prime Minister told the Hungarian news agency MTI on Saturday in Riga.

He said: the meeting was attended by Tang Hsiao-Ming, the company’s regional president, and Cheng Vei-Feng, Chief Executive of Huawei’s Hungarian subsidiary. The meeting formed an integral part of a series of regular talks as Huawei is a strategic partner of the Hungarian Government as the second largest Chinese investor in Hungary, he pointed out.

DownloadPhoto: Balázs Szecsődi

Mr Havasi told MTI: the parties established with satisfaction at the meeting that the company is prospering in Hungary where it has the second largest manufacturing centre in the world. They supply the products made in Hungary to fifty-five countries around the world, the company paid HUF 9 billion in taxes to the central budget, and employs 2,500 people in Hungary alone, he said. He added: the company’s sales in Hungary amounted to HUF 67 billion in 2015.

He highlighted: the main topic of the meeting was the Government’s Digital Welfare Programme. The parties discussed how Huawei could take part in the programme, and how it could turn to good use the major global experience it has acquired in the implementation of similar projects.

DownloadPhoto: Balázs Szecsődi

Huawei is one of the world’s leading information and communication technology suppliers, and is primarily engaged in the installation of telecommunications networks, the provision of operating and consulting services, and the production of communication devices intended for the consumer market. The company celebrated the tenth anniversary of its operations in Hungary last year. It now employs more than 2,500 workers indirectly in Hungary, and is in contact with some 600 suppliers. The company has to date made investments worth EUR 200 million (more than HUF 60 billion) in Hungary, and with this sum it qualifies as the second largest Chinese investor in the country.

(MTI)