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Hungary looks to break export record: FM

Xinhua, November 25, 2016 Adjust font size:

Hungary appears on the verge of producing the largest export numbers in the country's economic history, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto said here on Thursday, addressing a forum to mark Hungarian Export Day.

This year's probable record follows a similar record last year, he said.

Szijjarto noted that in the first eight months of 2016, exports were up by 3 percent year-on-year and that the driving forces had been the engineering and pharmaceutical industries.

Based on last year's numbers, Hungary has become the 35th largest exporter in the world (its overall population is about 10 million), and it has been granted the right to organize the World Export Development Forum in 2017.

Szijjarto acknowledged that 79.1 percent of its exports were to countries within the European Union, but added that between 2010 and 2015, its sales to the Orient had risen by 7 percent.

Zoltan Urban, CEO of the Hungarian Export-Import Bank (Eximbank), organizer of the forum, said his bank's role was to offer information on business opportunities and to encourage investments.

He noted that while statistics say that world trade declined by 13 percent in 2015, Hungarian exports had been up by 7 percent, and Eximbank had increased the volume of its export-related credit/lending services by 30 percent.

Kazakhstan's Ambassador to Hungary, Nurbakh Rustemov, attended the forum as a guest of honor, with Hungarian businesses interested in investing in Kazakh agriculture.

Meanwhile, an agreement to start up direct air services between Budapest and Astana was signed on Thursday. Endit