– What is our export position to Japan among the four Visegrád countries and what is our export share? What are the same figures in relation to the EU’s 25 member countries?
– Hungary is Japan’s the second biggest Central Eastern European commercial partner country. Hungary is a bigger buyer’s market of Japanese products than Poland and the Czech Republic; our export exceeds the totalled Czech and Polish exports, though these two countries have higher GDP and world trade shares than that of Hungary’s. Hungary’s share of export from the four Visegrád countries to Japan is 45%.
All of the newly accessed countries among the EU states and furthermore Greece, Portugal and Luxembourg have less bilateral commodity trade volumes with Japan than Hungary. Japan’s share is 4.5% in the total export of the European Union’s 25 countries, while its share is 7.2% in the total import, making it the 5th most important trade partner of the EU–25.
– What are the biggest Hungarian export items to Japan? Do you think that we still have some reserves?
– Not so long time ago it would have been hard to imagine that we would export automatic data processing and transmission equipment to Japan, and now this is our biggest export branch, it accounts for more than 30% of the total export to Japan. According to the data for the first 6 months of the year, its value is YEN 10.6 billion. More importantly, the turnover of this branch has increased by 45% in one year.
Despite its drop in this year, pork is still Hungary's the second most important export product, its share was more than 15% in the first half of this year. The significant items are the passenger cars and automotive components - having 5% shares respectively – and there are other items such as engine components, fuel pumps, goose feather and goose liver, which are also important. All in all, it can be seen that the majority of the Hungarian exports items to Japan are products with high added value and which require qualified workforce.
We have our reserves primarily in the automotive, electronics, ICT and biotechnology sectors, but I believe that we have some unexploited opportunities in relation with beef, because Hungary is exempt from BSE, which only a few countries can boast of. However, it is true that the Japanese food import standards and regulatory procedures are extremely strict but with diligent work it is possible to step ahead in this field.
– According to the data by the National Bank of Hungary, it is obvious that Hungary is the most attractive country for Japanese investors in the region. What are the reasons for this remarkable breakthrough? What are our primary importances for Japanese investments?
– Several big investments have been made in Hungary recently. Between 1999 and 2004, EUR 516 million Japanese investments flowed to Hungary in the forms of stocks; therefore Japan is ranked No. 4 among the foreign investors. There were also new investment decisions (Ibiden, Asahi Glass, Bridgestone) and also capacity enhancements (as previously mentioned for Suzuki and Denso and also for Sanyo and Sumitomo). We expect 6–8 positive investment decisions in this year and there are more than 10 cases in the early phases, which are handled by ITDH.
How can we explain that? The reasons of success are in the network of the Hungarian investment incentives and in the competitiveness of our country. Apart from the government's incentives, the most important elements are the productivity, qualification and flexibility of the Hungarian workforce and the logistics and the infrastructure of the country. The access to the European markets, political and financial stability and also the quickly developing economical environment play important roles for Japanese investments.
In the future, we will strive to attract not only companies in the automotive and electronics sectors, which have been already active in Hungary but also companies from the biotechnological and IT sectors, which have high added values. Recently, there have been growing interests by Japanese companies operating in Western Europe to relocate their manufacturing sites to Central Eastern Europe. Our goal is to bring these investments to Hungary.
– Is it expected that you sign any important agreements?
– There is an unsolved legal problem, and that is the Commercial and Shipment Agreement signed in 1975, which is regarded by Japan as „the agreement regulating the basis of economic ties”. Since, it is not in line with the EU’s legal system, Brussels cannot be avoided in this issue, so we cannot solve this problem by ourselves but we can move the negotiations from its deadlock.
In the occasion of the Prime Minister’s visit, the jointly decision of fields and frameworks of ties and the direction of developments have already been resettled according to the new conditions, which were kept important form strategic viewpoints by the Hungarian side. Both sides have made a jointly decision for the elaboration of the means for these ties.
– What do you expect from the negotiations?
– In order to improve the competitiveness of the Hungarian economy it is inevitable to draw foreign direct investments. The aim of my visit is to further improve the interests of the investors, to strengthen the trust in the Hungarian investment environment and to discuss concrete investment plans, which are under preparations. We have reasons to be optimistic.
