Photo: iStock
Dániel Kovács
20/09/2024 06:00
In the spring of 2015, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó announced that, following the success of the Opening to the East strategy launched a few years earlier, the Opening to the South strategy would be launched, focusing on Africa and Latin America, with the aim of opening doors to Hungarian economic players in this direction. To this end, within a year the government decided to open four new embassies (Ecuador, Ethiopia, Ghana, Angola) and six trading houses (Ethiopia, Angola, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Kenya), and in the same year nine joint economic committee meetings were held with the countries of the two regions, and 660 scholarships were opened at Hungarian universities for students from these countries.
It should be noted that, although the focus has been on Africa and Latin America, the Southern Opening also includes the expansion of foreign trade relations with the Balkans, perhaps our country's most important buffer zone for investment, where large companies and more adventurous SMEs can also try their luck.
The opening of embassies has been accompanied by a rapid influx of first businesses. The Opening to the South saw the arrival of 100,000 day-old chicks from Bábolna and around 30,000 hatching eggs to Asmara, Eritrea's capital in North Africa. And while some of the press were grilling at the small-scale deal - the shipment was worth around 200,000 euros - the much bigger ones were quietly getting underway. One of the main areas of cooperation with neighbouring Ethiopia has been the transfer of agricultural technology and knowledge, with Hungarian experts helping to introduce new agricultural technologies that will increase productivity and improve food security.
Already in 2016, a Hungarian steel investment in Tunisia was successfully completed. Hungarian water experts travelled to Nigeria, where Hungary was involved in the development of drinking water treatment and distribution, including the installation of new water treatment plants and the upgrading of existing infrastructure. This has also strengthened trade relations between the two countries, particularly in the pharmaceutical and agricultural sectors. Hungary has also launched a number of agricultural projects in Ghana aimed at improving local farming methods and increasing productivity. These improvements included the introduction of new technologies and training of local farmers.
Cooperation with the South American region has also been stepped up, with food processing, agro-industry, water management, medical devices and information and communication technologies being the main drivers of joint work.
Hungary's policy of opening up to the South has opened up new opportunities for many Hungarian companies in African and South American markets. By diversifying exports and entering new markets, these companies have achieved significant economic results, contributing to Hungary's external economic relations and competitiveness in the international market. These success stories show that the policy of Opening to the South can be a profitable long-term strategy for the Hungarian economy.
The author is a business journalist