Photo: iStock
Norbert Csizmadia
09/11/2024 15:47
This means that, in geopolitical and geostrategic terms, these meeting points are becoming gateways and their role can be of paramount importance. These gateway areas are important bridges, linking significant geographical entities. These include Singapore and Southeast Asia at the sea-land interface, or the United Arab Emirates and the Persian Gulf. But gateways can also be created within land. The Belt and Road Initiative is about transposing the axes of connectivity from the seas to the land, as in Central Asia and in our own region, Central Europe. In this new vision, Hungary will become a privileged gateway at the dawn of a new Eurasian era!
Hungary is at the forefront of the globalisation of Chinese technological innovation
In order to take advantage of the gateway region, we should focus on our strengths. Two years ago, Luo Yihang, in a study published in Sina Finance, showed why Hungary could be the vanguard of China's technological innovation globalisation alongside Singapore. While almost all of the technology companies and professionals attracted to Singapore are linked to the "virtual economy", Chinese investments in our country are building visible, tangible factories and real economies with their own key enabling technologies, or have achieved a tight integration of advanced technology and advanced manufacturing to link into the global product and value chain, especially in Europe. CATL, Lenovo, Azera, Huawei, or BYD did not choose Hungary by chance: our geographical and geostrategic location, our high level of domestic engineering, our industrial and manufacturing traditions, and our automotive industry with a long tradition and a reputation dating back 100 years, all contributed to the relevance of this choice. The Belgrade-Budapest railway line, designated through the Belt and Road Initiative, not only connects the two cities, but also links the southern edge of Europe (Piraeus) with Europe's largest northern port (Hamburg), creating one of the most important rail transport arteries. The rail link connects 64 cities in China with 160 cities in 22 countries across Europe! The long-term transport, production and logistics hub that will be built in Hungary will create a wider hub for Europe.
75 years of diplomatic relations
China is a key partner of Hungary and the 75-year diplomatic relationship is a solid foundation of trust and understanding between the two countries. In 1949, Hungary was the first country to establish diplomatic relations with China, and the Chinese always speak of this with pride. Cooperation focuses not only on economy and trade, but also on technology, culture, science and education. The significance of Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit in May 2024 was to take the strategic partnership to a level of cooperation that the Chinese have with only five countries in its category, Hungary being the only one in Europe.
Four priority areas
There are four priority areas for building future cooperation: the knowledge economy, infrastructure connectivity, the financial system and education. The fusion of talent, technology, capital and cognition. To win in the 21st century, we need to leverage high value-added business activities. In this respect, knowledge transfer and value co-creation are key in partnership with China and other countries of the Belt and Road Initiative. Knowledge sharing plays a key role in promoting long-term sustainable economic growth and Hungary can serve as an intellectual, intellectual hub in Central Europe.
One of the best and most visible examples of infrastructure connectivity is that Hungary has now established direct air links with seven cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Ningbo, Xian, Chongqing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen), with 21 flights per week. Liszt Ferenc International Airport thus offers the most extensive network in East-Central Europe to the Far East, giving Hungary a significant economic advantage. Another long-term option is to build a high-speed rail network linking the entire Carpathian Basin. This would make our regional cities (Szeged, Debrecen, Miskolc, etc.) accessible from the capital within 30-40 minutes, the Budapest-Kolozsvár (Cluj) distance could be reduced to one and a half hours, and the 707 km distance to Csíkszereda (Miercurea Ciuc) could be reached within two and a half hours by high-speed rail.
As a result of the increasing connectivity between the Hungarian and Chinese financial systems, the Bank of China was the first in Europe to open an office in Hungary in 2015. The China Development Bank (CDB) opened a representative office in Hungary at the end of 2022, and the Hungarian branch of China Construction Bank (Europe) S.A. opened in the summer of 2023. This positive trend fits well with Hungary's objective to become the financial centre of the Central and Eastern European region.
In this new Eurasian era (new Renaissance), we are heading towards a new intellectual revolution, a revolution of long-term sustainability. If the key to the successes of the past 500 years has been the transformation of financial wealth into capital, the key to the new era that is now dawning is the attraction of talent to create the best combinations of knowledge, technology and capital. Investing in education is key, as is providing opportunities for continuous learning by encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship. It is important that we attract more well-qualified international students to study at our universities. Our medical universities are outstanding, so it may be appropriate to create an East-West Health HUB, linked to the domestic health industry, building on both Eastern medicine and Western medical innovation. In addition, our universities based on engineering education and creative industries also stand out. In these areas, it makes sense to build and operate closer educational partnerships and double degree programmes.
In knowledge centres alongside universities, it is increasingly important to learn and understand Eastern knowledge, Eastern thinking and Eastern megatrends. The Eurasia Center at John von Neumann University is currently building an important institutional bridge in building links between knowledge centres and universities in Hungary and China and other countries in Asia. For example, in July this year, the new campus of John von Neumann University was one of the highlights of the five-day final of the Youth Innovation Competition on Global Governance (YICCG), which focused on the role of artificial intelligence in governance. The competition, organised by Fudan University in Shanghai, brought together nearly 100 students from 40 countries to compete. For the sixth consecutive year, the Magyar Nemzeti Bank organises the world-class Budapest Eurasia Forum, whose mission is to strengthen Hungary's role as a bridge between East and West through Eurasian cooperation in geopolitical, financial, economic, technological and educational fields. Last year, 52 speakers from 15 European and Far Eastern countries shared their ideas in our country and more than 20,000 people followed the event. The Eurasia Forum is an important bridge for connecting the academic world and understanding the new Eurasian era.
Through them, Hungary can become not only a prominent gateway but also a key Eurasian HUB, an East-West HUB, in the next 25 years as we celebrate 100 years of diplomatic relations.
The author is a geographer and chairman of the board of trustees of the Pallas Athéné Domus Meriti Foundation and the John von Neumann University Foundation