Hungary finance minister has talks with Amazon, Tesla, Boeing leaders

During his current visit to the United States, Finance Minister Mihály Varga had talks with vice-presidents of online trading company Amazon, the finance ministry said on Friday. Varga has also visited Tesla’s headquarters in Fremont, California.

Hungary is committed to maintaining close bilateral trade ties with the US, the ministry said in a statement citing Varga, adding that

last year bilateral trade turnover had reached over 5.4 billion dollars, while Hungary posted a one billion dollar surplus in 2017.

Varga told Amazon leaders that the volume of online retail trade in Hungary was up 28 percent in 2017, accounting for a total turnover of nearly 400 billion forints (EUR 1.2bn). This suggests the sector offers further opportunities for expansion, he said. The Hungarian government expects long-term economic development and a two-digit wage increase, supporting steady growth in domestic consumption and retail trade, the statement said.

Varga also paid a visit to the Boeing Group.

He noted that the Hungarian government had contributed a large sum to the engineering unit of Germany’s Diehl plant in Debrecen, which is a top supplier of airplane parts, including to Boeing. Hungary is committed to the R+D and the development of high value-added products in particular, he added.

Varga has talks at Tesla headquarters in California