Moldovan, Hungarian premiers participate in bilateral forum of businesspeople
17:05 | 12.03.2020 Category: Official
Chisinau, 12 March /MOLDPRES/ - Prime Ministers Ion Chicu and Viktor Orban today participated in a Moldovan-Hungarian bilateral forum of businesspeople. Attending the event were representatives of 23 Hungarian companies and of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) of Hungary. The forum was conceived as a platform for identifying opportunities of cooperation between the business communities of Moldova and Hungary, the government’s communication and protocol department has reported.
At the discussion, Success Stories, representatives of the OTP Bank financial group and the companies Gedeon Richter and Vitafort took the floor. The president of Moldova’s CCI, Sergiu Harea, and the deputy head of the committee on international relations of the Hungarian CCI signed a memorandum on cooperation, meant to ensure the boosting of the contacts between businesspeople from the two countries.
The PMs of Moldova and Hungary took part in the session on conclusion of the Moldovan-Hungarian bilateral forum. Ion Chicu informed those present about the fact that Moldova had ended the 2019 year with a budget deficit of 2.4 percentage points and managed to cut the report on public debt to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 1.9 percentage points to 25.2 percentage points – one of the best indexes in the region. In the last years, the IT industry has quickly developed in Moldova, which in 2018 exceeded five billion lei, of which 2.5 billion lei come from the export with services. The government undertakes measures to enhance the investment attractiveness of Moldova and looks for opportunities to edify econmic partnerships in the West and in the East.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban showed willingness to share Hungary’s experience in the development and modernization of economy through the transfer of capital and technologies. Hungary quickly made progress in the improvement of the living standards due to the integration into the European economic flows. To attract investments, a convenient taxation system is needed, which works well, as well as qualitative labour force.
Hungary is willing to help Moldova and, in this respect, a decision was taken to open a crediting line of 100 million dollars to stimulate the commercial exchanges between Moldova and Hungary and create joint ventures. The IT sector accounts for over 20 per cent of Hungary’s GDP, which shows the performance of the economy. Orban referred to the rationality of maintaining the balanced relations with the West and the East.
Both PMs backed the necessity to launch the direct flight Budapest-Chisinau.
Note. Fifty companies with Hungarian capital work in Moldova, in which about 68.5 million lei was invested. Among the biggest Hungarian investors in Moldova, there are the OTP Bank financial group, which entered the Moldovan market in July 2019 and the pharmaceutical companies Gedeon Richter and Vitafort. These companies are among the native leaders in their industries. In 2018, Hungary was the 13th commercial partner of Moldova, with a share of 1.42 per cent in Moldova’s foreign trade. The trade exchanges between the two countries amounted to about 118.96 million dollars in 2018 and in 2019, the bilateral commerce stood at 119.9 million dollars.