Along with this agreement, a second deal was struck which will see Eximbank contributing $30 million (€22.9 million) to a planned $500 million China-Central Europe investment fund. Varga stated that this fund could ultimately invest some $100 million back into Hungary, particularly in infrastructure development, telecommunications and energy.
The cooperation marks further develop in the government’s recently-emphasized goals for domestic businesses. Varga stated yesterday that two key objectives exist for such funds: Stimulation of investment opportunities in Hungarian businesses and expansion of exports by Hungarian firms, both of which he felt the agreement with the China Import-Export Bank met.
Under terms of the agreement, the inherent incentives for those exporting to China reaffirm recent statements by Foreign Trade Secretary Péter Szijjártó that one primary aim on the current government is to move one-third of all Hungarian exports to non-European Union nations by 2018, with China a key player.
And on Friday, Varga announced that Eximbank had approved a credit line of €70 million for chemical industry company BorsodChem, the Hungarian branch of Yantai-based Wanhua Industrial Group. At that time, Varga explained that the financing as for the purpose of “increas[ing] the role of Hungarian SMEs as suppliers” and said that “a pipeline of similar financing deals in the near future” is expected.



