Hungary’s National Innovation Office and the Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI) Shenzhen signed a cooperation agreement on establishing the Chinese company’s Central European headquarters in Budapest at a conference organized by the National Development Ministry on Tuesday.

The agreement was signed by National Innovation Office chairman György Mészáros and BGI CEO Wang Jian.

BGI was founded in Beijing in 1999 with the mission of supporting the development of science and technology, building strong research teams, and promoting the development of scientific partnerships in the field of genomics, according to the company’s website. In 2007, BGI’s headquarters was relocated to Shenzhen as the first citizen-managed, non-profit research institution in China.

The agreement was signed after the opening of the China Hi-Tech Fair in Budapest.

Participating at the fair were construction magnate Sándor Demján, who heads business association VOSZ, which recently established the Hungarian-Chinese Development Council; Chinese ambassador to Hungary Gao Jian; and Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén.

Semjén said he saw a good chance for cooperation between Hungarian and Chinese companies in the areas of medicine and biology, green technologies and electronics.