BUDAPEST, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- More cooperation in investment and trade is expected as Hungarian company and business representatives met in the Hungarian capital with a visiting business delegation from east China's Zhejiang Province that is seeking trade and investment opportunities.
Speaking at the Hungary-Zhejiang Investment and Trade Cooperation Matchmaking Conference on Monday, Erno Peto, president of Hungarian-Chinese Chamber of Economy, said he was glad to welcome "a large Chinese delegation in three years" here in Budapest.
Zhejiang Province is recognized for its importance in the Chinese economy and has an investor-friendly business environment, he said.
"Zhejiang is a good entry point to the Chinese market for Hungarian companies, just as Hungary is a good platform for Chinese companies to enter the European market. I believe that Hungarian investors will be welcomed," Peto added.
Zsanett Ihasz, manager of Chinese Relations of Hungarian Export Promotion Agency, said at the meeting that China and Hungary have established "exemplary and prosperous" business cooperation over the past seven decades, and Hungary has become an important destination country for many Chinese companies as well as an important transit and distribution center for access to the European market.
Hungary highly values all the opportunities to meet its Chinese partners in person, she said, recalling that the two countries have been able to maintain a close relationship in the form of online conferences and business-to-business meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic. "As a result, our relationship has shown unprecedented flexibility."
Ihasz said she believed the event will provide a platform to boost business opportunities between the two countries.
"The (Chinese delegation's) presentations are very impressive. I can see a lot of potentials in China," Giddel Edwin-Uzoaga, a sales manager in the building industry, told Xinhua, naming technological and infrastructural development in Zhejiang.
Edwin-Uzoaga, whose company's business focuses on innovative clean technologies, said he is upbeat about cooperation with China. "I really hope that we can find the right partners that could work with, and maybe set up a joint venture and then see how it goes in the nearest future. "
Along with the meeting, the Chinese delegation also briefed the attendees about this year's China-Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC) Expo due to be held in Ningbo City of Zhejiang Province.
According to the delegation, the expo, scheduled for May 16-20, will include about 20 important activities such as forums, brand promotion meetings, e-commerce live broadcasts, so as to create more business opportunities for CEE countries in economic and trade cooperation.
Hungarian businessman Laszlo Regoczi, who said his first business began in Ningbo, told Xinhua he wanted to participate in the expo not only to find some partners for his mineral water business, but also to help his Hungarian friends present at the "fantastic exhibition."
Talking to Xinhua after Monday's event, Peto said the CEEC Expo is very important for the Hungarian companies, and he has attended it for three times.
He said his chamber would try to organize a delegation to the expo this year, while stressing the importance of cooperation.
"We will try to coordinate the neighboring CEE countries to go together to the Ningbo fair. Even they will have their own country booth or pavilion, companies must cooperate. That's the future," said Peto.
Peto also noted that he is "very positive" about Chinese economy after the country downgraded its COVID-19 control measures early January.
"China has made an incredible high and good development in the past two decades. China is a key player for the recovery of the world economy," he said.
Noting multiple investment banks have upwardly revised their forecasts for China's growth rate in 2023, Peto told Xinhua that is "very important not only for the Chinese economy but for the world economy."
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