HUNGARY IN CHONGQING
CONSUL GENERAL, MR GERGELY KáDáR DISCUSSES THE KEY OPPORTUNITIES FOR HUNGARY IN CHONGQING
Located in the heart of the European Union, Budapest could serve as a commercial and logistical link between Chongqing and the broader European economy. Due to its strengths in the automotive sector and in thermal water treatment, the country has several natural synergies with Chongqing.
Chongqing, Hungary, the Belt and Road
In 2015, Hungary was the first EU country to join the Belt and Road Initiative, but even before this Hungary had a good relationship with China. In 2010, the Hungarian government announced the “Opening to the East” policy, which aimed to strengthen the country’s relations with Asian countries including China. In 2011, the cooperation between China and Central and Eastern Europe countries was also announced in Budapest.
Located in the heart of Europe and along the Belt and Road Initiative routes, Hungary and Budapest have excellent conditions to serve as a logistics centre to the products of Chongqing. In 2020, the direct train line between Budapest and Chongqing started its operation. This is used by several companies such as Huawei, which has a regional logistics centre in Hungary. For Chongqing, a major laptop and electronics manufacturing base, Budapest offers significant potentials.
Hungarian companies operating in Chongqing are mainly present through representative offices of their coastal region based enterprises. In fact, we have made great effort promoting Chongqing and Southwest-China to Hungarian companies already present at or interested in the Chinese market.
Working with local partners
In service of our bilateral technological cooperation, the Chinese office of our most relevant local partner, the Chinese-Hungarian Technology Transfer Center (CHTTC) is based in Chongqing.
Hungary is especially strong in the automotive industry as well as in high-end medical equipment manufacturing. Concerning the automotive industry Hungary is strongly involved in the new energy vehicle sector and are welcoming Chinese enterprises to take parts in its development. For example, in 2022 the Chinese Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL) officially announced that it will invest 7,34 billion euros to build a 100 GWh battery plant in Debrecen, Hungary. We believe Chongqing, being one of China’s important automobile production bases, could benefit immensely from working with Hungary.
Our Consulate General provide information and assistance to local companies, who are themselves not yet familiar with the opportunities available in Hungary. For example, local companies can enter the EU market through Hungarian partners or distributors, or even access the investment support system of the Hungarian government.
Consumption and the Chinese market
As Chongqing and China moves towards a more consumption-driven growth model, we support Hungarian companies who can service this new emerging market. We work hard to help the Hungarian businesses understanding the diversity of China and its region specific development trajectories. We aim to help Hungarian enterprises to discover and tap into the opportunities offered by the different regions of China.
The Chengdu Chongqing economic circle
As China's fourth, most recent economic growth cluster the Chengdu Chongqing economic circle
enjoys a great degree of support and attention from the central government. This project can be viewed as an extension of the well-established Western Development Program. Chongqing and Chengdu play the part of an engine of growth for Western China with the expectation of economic spillovers to the other parts of this region.
Greater connectivity, especially in the railway transport system, as well as the development of regions in between, places such as Dazu and Bishan lying on the new high-speed rail routes, could see rapid development.
Tourism
Before 2020, there were direct flights from Chongqing to Hungary, and we had run tourism promotion projects such as influencer and company visits. After the easing of COVID restrictions, we can hopefully re-establish this flight connection and continue building on our previous work. Hungary had already established a range of Chinese language services to facilitate tourism in Budapest. A key tourism sector that we identified where there are obvious synergies between Hungary and Chongqing is the hot spring industry. Hungary has a long tradition of thermal water spas and associated medical treatments. In fact, in Hungary, thermal water treatment methods can be prescribed to people suffering from certain maladies and with a medical prescription services can be accessed at a reduced cost.
Before the COVID pandemic, we had actually begun working on a range of projects related to thermal waters, with Hungary offering its know-how in the field of medical thermal water treatments. We organised thermal waters conferences in Chongqing, which brought together not only the relevant companies, but academic and other professionals from the field. In the future, we look forward to continue developing this sector.
Cultural exchange
We have established several academic and research cooperation programmes; for example a Hungarian course major is also available at SISU. We regularly inform local students on available government scholarships to support studying in Hungary and on other relevant educational opportunities. Since 2016, we have continuously organized cultural events under the theme Hungarian Cultural Festival in Western China - Spring and Autumn of Budapest.