The foreign minister has announced that the governments of Hungary and Egypt have signed an agreement on cooperation in the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZONE), giving Hungarian companies a good chance to launch investments in the region.
Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, told a Hungarian-Egyptian business forum in Cairo that the government had “created the best possible conditions” for successful cooperation between the two countries' companies. In political cooperation, Hungary and Egypt signed a strategic partnership agreement earlier in the day, he said. Hungary’s Eximbank has opened a 100 million euro credit line to financially support cooperation between Hungarian and Egyptian businesses, he added. On bilateral economic ties, Szijjártó noted that in a flagship project of cooperation, the Hungarian transport industry received the largest commission of its history from Egypt, and has recently delivered 1,350 railway carriages. Minister Szijjártó said the delegation to Egypt included businessmen representing “world-class Hungarian technology” in water management, info-communications and transport, hoping to “conduct fruitful talks” with Egyptian companies. Earlier in the day, Minister Szijjártó said Egypt and Hungary had been in a long-term cooperation based on mutual respect, with both countries profiting a lot in the recent period. He said that during their official visit to Cairo, the Hungarian delegation will sign several agreements including one on nuclear cooperation aimed at an exchange of experience, training experts and student exchange programmes. Szijjártó also announced the start of negotiations on buying liquefied natural gas from Egypt to be used in Hungary from 2026, thus increasing the country’s energy security. According to Szijjártó, higher education cooperation with Egypt will also be promoted, with the number of scholarships at Hungarian universities for Egyptian students increasing from an annual 115 to 200. Concerning the Ukraine war, Minister Szijjártó said “Egypt is also in the peace camp … urging a diplomatic solution”. The country is “part of the global majority, which undoubtedly falls outside Europe, but which is eager to see the war in Ukraine end,” he said.