Budapest, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- The "High-quality Belt and Road Initiative Seminar" was held in Budapest, the capital of Hungary, on Feb. 23. Experts at the meeting believed that under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, China and Hungary have made great progress in cooperation in various fields such as politics and economy, and suggested that the Belt and Road Initiative should continue to deepen the friendly relations between China and Hungary.
Hungary has long and firmly pursued a friendly policy towards China, and is the first European country to sign a cooperation document with China on the joint construction of the "Belt and Road", and actively supports the joint construction of the "Belt and Road".
Horvat Levan Chinese t, director of the Center for Eurasia at Johann von Neumann University in Hungary, said at the meeting that Hungary's "open to the east" strategy positions itself as a bridge between East and West. Hungary hopes to achieve mutual benefit and win-win results and promote cooperation and development through the "Open East" strategy and the Belt and Road Initiative. In this regard, Hungary has already achieved good results, and there is still room for further growth.
Gergay S Chinese aurat, a researcher at the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs, said that Hungary's active participation in the Belt and Road Initiative is due to the fact that Hungary and China have many similarities, both countries regard connectivity as a key development direction, and the Belt and Road Initiative has become an important platform for the two countries to strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation. As a member of the European Union, Hungary strongly supports the Belt and Road Initiative, which will also help it strengthen its connectivity with countries around the world and increase cooperation opportunities with other countries.
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has entered its 11th year, and China-Hungary cooperation in various fields has achieved fruitful results in recent years in the context of the in-depth integration of Hungary's "Open to the East" strategy and the Belt and Road Initiative. This year marks the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Hungary, and the experts at the meeting believed that promoting high-quality Belt and Road cooperation will bring more development opportunities to the two countries and deepen the friendship between China and Hungary.
Mordicz Chobau, head of the School of International Relations of the Hungarian Matthias Corvinus Institute, said that after Hungary implemented the strategy of "opening up to the east," the proportion of foreign direct investment in Hungary has increased sharply from 1 percent to 9 percent, making the composition of foreign investment in Hungary more diversified and conducive to Hungary's economic security. Taking the automotive industry as an example, the value chain of automobile manufacturing and its related industries can reach 15% of Hungary's GDP, and to maintain the position of this industry in the global value chain, China's investment and technology in new energy vehicles and related industries are needed, which will become an important area of future cooperation between Hungary and China.
Banshidi Ferenc, a professor at the Catholic University of Pazmani Peter in Hungary, said that the cooperation between China and Hungary in the digital field is a typical success story of bilateral cooperation. He believes that there is great potential in this field, and Chinese companies in e-commerce, mobile communications and other industries can bring important empowerment to various fields in Hungary. Next, we should also combine the information industry with the new energy industry, and consider the construction of charging facilities, information management systems and other facilities, so as to more effectively promote the transformation and upgrading of the Hungarian economy. In this regard, the overseas teams of Chinese enterprises have strong strength and can play an important role.
In response to some murmurs from individual countries about the Belt and Road Initiative, Kisęj Zoltan, Director of the Political Analysis Center of the Žazodwig Institute in Hungary, said that the Belt and Road Initiative is a common solution proposed by the co-construction countries in the face of the current situation and development needs, and embodies the concept of mutual benefit. There are some voices from outside who have raised murmurs about the Belt and Road Initiative and Hungarian-Chinese relations, which are essentially motivated by the so-called "great power competition". He said that opposition to the Belt and Road Initiative has no future, and the only option in the end should still be cooperation.
The seminar was hosted by the Xinhua News Agency Research Institute. Experts from the Xinhua News Agency Research Institute introduced the research results of the national high-end think tank of Xinhua News Agency to the guests.
In April 2019, the Xinhua News Agency Research Institute and 15 Chinese and foreign think tanks jointly initiated the establishment of the "Belt and Road" International Think Tank Cooperation Committee, in which more than 130 global think tanks have participated, and have launched think tank reports such as "The Belt and Road Development", which have achieved wide influence. (ENDS).