Bilateral Relations Hungary / China( Last Update: 2003/08/26)
II. Bilateral Economic and Trade Relations and Economic and Technological Cooperation
From 1950 to 1990, the two Governments conducted their trade by keeping accounts under government agreements. In 1991, the two countries replaced this clearing- agreements trade with trade by payments in convertible foreign exchanges, and the bilateral trade volume decreased by a big margin for a time, but soon showed a tendency of increasing year by year. The annual trade volume increased from US$55.6 million in 1991 to US$409 million in 1994, and afterwards decreased somewhat. The trade volume in 1997 was US$322 million, in 1998 US$410 million, and in 1999 it rose to US$622 million. In 2000, the trade volume reached US$997 million, ranking first in China's trade with the countries in central and east Europe. China has a rather big surplus after 1993, and Hungary is eager to expand export to China.
In 2001, the bilateral trade volume reached U.S.$ 1.16 billion, a record in history. It was U.S.$ 0.978 billion in January-August 2002, up 23.9% than the same period of last year Of the total, China's export was U.S.$ 0.867 billion, up 24.4%; its import U.S.$ 0.111 billion, up 19.7%.
In 1984, the Sino-Hungarian Committee of Economic and Trade, and Scientific and Technological Cooperation was established. In May 1991, the minister of foreign trade and economy cooperation Li Lanqi led a government trade and economic delegation to Hungary and signed the agreement on investment protection between the two countries. In May 1992, the China Trade Center in Budapest was open for business. In June, the government agreement on avoidance of double taxation and prevention of tax evasion was signed in Beijing. In 1997, China and Hungary signed the bilateral market access agreement with respect to China's entry into the WTO. In March, the ninth meeting of the Sino-Hungarian Committee of Economic and Trade, and Scientific and Technological Cooperation was held in Budapest. In July, the chairman of the Hungarian Economic Cabinet and minister of finance visited China at the invitation of Vice Premier Li Lanqing. In October, the representative office of the Bank of China in Budapest was open for business. In September 1998, the Hungarian Airlines opened the Budapest-Beijing air route. In November, the chairman of the Hungarian Economic Cabinet and minister of economy visited China on invitation. In May 1999, the governor of the Hungarian National Bank Gyorgy visited China. In October, the 10th Meeting of the Sino-Hungarian Committee of Economic and Trade, and Scientific and Technological Cooperation was held in Beijing. In November 2000, the assistant minister of foreign trade and economic cooperation He Xiaowei led an economic and trade delegation to visit Hungary. In March 2002, a Chinese delegation headed by Zhou Keren, Vice Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, went to Hungary to participate in the 11th meeting of the China-Hungary Economic and Trade, Scientific and Technological Cooperation Commission.
According to incomplete statistics, China's state-owned enterprises have registered several hundred companies of different kinds in Hungary, and the Hungarian Chinese have several thousand private trading companies, hundreds of Chinese restaurants and many stores, as well as farms, acupuncture clinics, bean-curd workshops, photo processing shops, hair saloons, travel agencies and hotels. Up to now, the total amount of Chinese investment in Hungary is over US$100 million. As of the first half of 2000, Hungary had 333 investment projects in China, and had contracted US$174 million for investment and actually invested US$53.07 million in China.
