Hungary becomes the regional hub for China-CEE tourism cooperation

A regional tourism hub for cooperation between China and Central and Eastern Europe has been established in Budapest, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced on Tuesday after a two-day CEE-China summit in Bucharest.

This means that tourism between the 16 countries of the region and China will be organised from Budapest and in Budapest.

Romania hosted the second summit of its kind, including the Prime Ministers of Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia as well as Latvia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs.

On the sidelines of the summit, Prime Minister Orbán discussed the planned international South Stream gas pipeline project with his Slovenian and Bulgarian counterparts on Tuesday morning and he met with Chinese and Serbian officials on Monday to discuss upgrading the Budapest-Belgrade railway line with the help of Chinese investment.

Viktor Orbán highlighted that the agreement on developing the Budapest-Bucharest railway line was among the most important substantive outcomes of the summit.

He also noted that there are three Confucius Institutes already operating in Hungary, with a fourth soon to be opened. In addition, a regional institute for the further education of Chinese language teachers has also been established in Budapest, which is attended by both people who wish to study Chinese and by teachers who seek further training from all over Central Europe.

An agreement was reached with China’s Prime Minister on increasing imports from China, and preparations are underway in Budapest for further Chinese investments.

With regard to medium-term cooperation, the participants agreed to hold a China-Central Europe heads of government summit annually along with a business forum.

The Hungarian Prime Minister said European countries will not be able to emerge from the crisis without creating broader trade deals and free trade agreements. Hungary therefore supports the EU free trade treaties with the US and Japan, as well as urging freer trade between China and the European continent.