If we can extend the cooperation between Hungary and China to the full spectrum of the nuclear industry, great opportunities await us, said Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, after welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping in his Budapest office on Thursday, 9 May.
Hungary has been developing nuclear energy for more than 50 years and the largest nuclear industrial development in the whole of Europe is currently taking place in Hungary, underlined Mr Orbán. He also emphasised that the Hungarian Government plans to increase the proportion of nuclear energy between 60 and 70 per cent in the national energy mix by the early 2030s.
Furthermore, as recalled by Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó, Chinese e-mobility manufacturer BYD will bring its first-ever European electric car factory to Szeged and this will dramatically increase the economic weight and influence of Hungary in the European Union.
Construction of the facility and neighbouring infrastructure already started in this Southern Hungarian city of 160,000 residents, so the first BYD electric automobiles may roll down the assembly line as soon as 2025. BYD has been operating its electric bus and truck manufacturing company in Komárom since 2017.
“We will not stop here, since it is important for us that each and every segment of the automotive industry from manufacturing through research and development to services be present in Hungary. Therefore, we are already negotiating a further extension of our cooperation between BYD and Hungary”, Minister Szijjártó added.
He also emphasised that the future is shaped by e-mobility and national economies with the largest factories of the electric automotive industry will become the strongest in the future.