Central Asia is among the world’s fastest developing and most competitive regions, and Kazakhstan is its strongest country, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told a press conference on Wednesday after meeting the Kazakh president.
The country and region, Orbán said, would be a key to world economic development in the next 15-20 years.
The ancestors of Hungarians began their journey westward from the area around what is now Kazakhstan, he said, adding that the Kazakh president’s visit was just as much about friendship, brotherhood and the common past as it was about business and trade developments, which, he said, included tapping new energy sources and building international transport routes, “big topics” that would dominate the next 2-3 decades.
Europe, Orbán said, could not get by without imported energy, and Central Asia and Kazakhstan played a key role here. He called Kazakhstan “a strategic partner” in terms of Hungary and Europe’s energy security.
On Wednesday, Orbán and Kassym-Jomart Tokayev adopted a joint statement on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the strategic partnership between the two countries. Also, representatives of the two countries exchanged documents of the Kazakh-Hungarian agreements signed today.
Orbán noted that Hungarian-Kazakh trade turnover has doubled in ten years, adding that “we are not dissatisfied” with the pace of development, though “the potential in this relationship is much greater” and a “breakthrough” in Kazakh-Hungarian economic was on the cards.
Orbán said he and Tokayev have agreed that Hungarian and Kazakh companies would intensify cooperation in pharmaceuticals, the food industry, agriculture, and water management, while setting the goal of establishing flights between the two capitals. Also, an agreement was reached on setting up a Kazakh-Hungarian investment fund.
Hungarian oil and gas company MOL has been present in Kazakhstan for almost two decades, he noted. Now it can enhance its presence there thanks to today’s agreement, he added.
Meanwhile, Hungary has launched professional and business cooperation in the nuclear industry in light of Kazakhstan’s first nuclear programme starting soon, he said.
He noted that each year Hungary offers 250 scholarships to Kazakh students who, he said, provided a “golden bridge” between the two countries.
During its presidency of the European Council, Hungary “is doing everything” to speed up EU-Kazakh cooperation, the prime minister said, noting that it has convened an EU-Kazakhstan cooperation council and is working towards a visa facilitation agreement that would help Kazakhs forge economic and personal relations here.
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