(Photo: Balázs Szecsődi/Prime Ministerʼs Press Office)

“In view of the fact that the competitiveness of the European Union is continuously decreasing, it needs strategies that enable the halting of this process and the regaining of competitiveness,” the minister said. He once again stressed that “the closest possible relations must be maintained with the world’s most rapidly developing region, the Asian and Southeast Asian region.”

According to Szijjártó, it must be realized that all of the transport, energy and infrastructure development projects that serve to improve the future economic strength of Hungary and the EU are made possible by the One Belt, One Road program and the Hungarian governmentʼs own Eastern Opening (Keleti Nyitás) strategy, kormany.hu reported.

“We must recognize that the situation is no longer that capital flows exclusively from West to East in search of cheap labor, because these days large Asian corporations have become extremely successful on the European market and are buying up increasing numbers of European enterprises,” he explained. “Europe and Hungary must exploit this process and attract as many Asian and Southeast Asian companies as possible that represent high added value and apply state-of-the-art technologies,” he added.

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is also attending the meeting, which began on Sunday morning local time with the participation of 28 heads of state and government.

OBOR is a development strategy that focuses on connectivity and cooperation among countries primarily between the Peopleʼs Republic of China and the rest of Eurasia, which consists of two main components, the land-based “Silk Road Economic Belt” (SREB) and oceangoing “Maritime Silk Road” (MSR).