Hungary Allocates Azerbaijan Loan for 200 Million USD

Azerbaijan is interested in the Hungarian investment and joint projects. This was declared on March 6 by President Ilham Aliyev at a meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. During the visit it was announced that the Hungarian Eximbank would allocate a loan to Azerbaijan, totaling 200 million USD.

Viktor Orban paid official visit to Baku on March 5-6. He held talks with Ilham Aliyev in private and with the delegations.

"For us, Hungary is a very close friendly nation and we would like to see the economic relations correspond to the political level of our relations. Also, there are good prospects in the field of agriculture, energy and high technology. We are interested in the Hungarian investments in our country and we also want more Hungarian companies to participate in projects that Azerbaijan itself is financing," said Aliyev at the meeting with the delegations.

Orban expressed mutual interest in the development of economic co-operation and willingness to share the experience of Hungary in various fields.

A day earlier Orban held talks with Prime Minister Arthur Rasizadeh, on completion of which there was a ceremony of signing documents.

In particular the following was signed:

"The Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of Population of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Ministry of National Economy of Hungary"; "Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the field of high-tech ecosystem between the Ministry of Communications and High Technologies of the Azerbaijan Republic and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary"; "The Memorandum of Understanding between the University of Semelvey in Hungary and Azerbaijan Medical University"; "The Memorandum of Understanding between the Lankaran State University and the University of Kaposvár." The latter one was signed by the university rectors Asaf Iskenderov and Ferenc Shawano.

During the visit, Orban held an Azerbaijani-Hungarian business forum. In the sidelines of the forum, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary, Peter Siyarto told reporters the Hungarian government has opened a credit line of $ 200 million through Eximbank for the development of the bilateral relations with Azerbaijan.

The funds will be allocated to projects in information technology, the toll road system development in Azerbaijan, agriculture, water management and infrastructure construction.

 They discussed cooperation between the Azerbaijani government and the pharmaceutical company Richter.

The business forum was attended by over 50 representatives of Hungarian companies in agriculture, ICT, construction, renewable energy, industrial products and equipment, tourism, light industry, aviation, consulting, etc.

Meanwhile, the Hungarian-Polish low-cost airline WizzAir, which since March 27 resumes Budapest-Baku-Budapest flights, plans to annually earn 2.5-3 million euros in Azerbaijan. Journalists in Baku were told by the airline’s CEO Joseph Varadi.

Flights will be operated twice a week on Wednesdays and Sundays. Ticket price will be from 59.99 euro. However, the tickets on each flight are limited. The rest of the tickets will cost in the range of 75-80 euros one way.

This flight from Baku via Budapest to London will cost only 200 manats. -06D--