On July 16 this year, the Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade hosted the meeting of Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary, Peter Szijjarto, and Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan S. Umurzakov.

The meeting involved negotiations on the development of global epidemiological situation, as well as measures taken by the governments of the two countries to counter the coronavirus and mitigate the economic effects of the pandemic. P. Szijjarto expressed his sincere gratitude for the humanitarian assistance provided by Uzbekistan to fight against the pandemic and emphasized that the assistance of Uzbekistan was the largest in terms of all humanitarian cargo received by Hungary from other countries.

For reference: In the spring this year, Uzbekistan sent 650,000 protective medical masks to Hungary as humanitarian aid to counter the coronavirus and protect the population.

The parties also considered a wide agenda of bilateral cooperation in investment, commercial and financial areas. The Hungarian side noted the increase of interest of entrepreneurs in investment and industrial cooperation with Uzbek companies. In order to effectively use the existing potential herein, the parties agreed to provide comprehensive mutual assistance in already launched projects, as well as to join efforts to develop new industrial projects in the fruit and vegetable and textile industries, as well as in the production of construction materials.

According to the parties, cooperation in the pharmaceutical industry has a special priority with a view to the creation of full-cycle joint production of pharmaceuticals based on the engineering designs of leading Hungarian companies.

They noted a significant progress in mutual trade. Only for 5 months of this year, the commercial turnover demonstrated a confident 40 percent growth in relation to the same period last year. Here, both parties emphasized the importance of joint work on the implementation of the Road Map to bring trade with Hungary to USD 100 million. This was agreed upon following the meeting of the heads of the two states during the sessions of the Cooperation Council of Turkic-Speaking States in October last year. The parties negotiated on prospects to establish Uzbek-Hungarian Merchant House in Hungary.

To develop the partnership, the parties outlined specific steps in the banking and financial sector. They discussed prospects to open the OTP Bank in Uzbekistan, as well as opportunities for joint projects involving the funds of the Eximbank of Hungary.­

Separately, they noted the success in the rapprochement of the business communities of the two countries. ­Currently, there was finished an approval of a draft document on the establishment of the Uzbek-Hungarian Business Council. This authority will focus on further strengthening of interaction between the business communities of Uzbekistan and Hungary. Besides, the parties agreed to establish B2B and G2B cooperative exchange via video-conferencing in September this year.

Uzbekistan stated its willingness to expand cooperation in Uzbekistan-Hungary-EU format as a part of the promotion of the EU Strategy for Central Asia, as well as to actively cooperate to approve the Agreement on expanded partnership and cooperation between Uzbekistan and the EU, which will bring Uzbek-European relations to a new level.

The meeting resulted in agreement on the 6th meeting of the Uzbek-Hungarian Intergovernmental Commission on economic cooperation in November this year, including the organization of Business Forum involving the business cycles of the two countries. It was also agreed to create a Working Group, which will focus on the development of new investment and trade agreements, which will establish systematic work to deepen bilateral ties.