At an event organised by China’s Fiberhome, the minister said that the telecommunication equipment provider would set up an optical cable plant in Kisbér, north-west Hungary, with an initial investment of 6.5 billion forints (EUR 16.8m), according to Hungarian news agency MTI.
The investment which will create 120 jobs will be supported by a 970 million forint government grant, the minister said. Szijjártó said the project would “contribute to increasing the technological level of the Hungarian economy and further strengthen the Hungarian electronics sector, which provides employment to 130,000 people and produced goods worth a combined 11,000 billion forints last year.”
Szijjártó noted that bilateral trade had exceeded 12 billion US dollars last year, the highest volume between Hungary and a non-EU state. Hungary also attracts the most foreign direct investment from China among Central European countries, he added.
He pointed out that the structure of the world economy has changed fundamentally in recent years, and one of the consequences of this has been the loss of hegemony of the West, as the Eastern world has not only caught up but in many respects has taken the lead.
"It is not just that in many areas of the world economy the East is now dominating and setting the pace, but also that in sectors that are key to the future of the world economy, the technological dominance is clearly on the East's side."
- he said. He went on to say that while fifteen years ago, 80 per cent of investment in the world was financed by Western capital and only 20 per cent by Eastern capital, this ratio has now been completely reversed, and it is no wonder that Europe is fighting a fierce battle for this investment.
"Of course, we can see that there is also a huge hypocrisy, because there is a big gap between the anti-China propaganda of Western European countries and the reality," he said.
"Western European countries have been denying their interest in attracting Chinese investment, but they have been exposed on several occasions, and it would be good if they too could switch to honesty, so that such unpleasant and undignified situations could be avoided."
- he added.
