Hungary and Kazakhstan aim to increase bilateral trade turnover to an annual 1 billion US dollars, Finance Minister Mihály Varga said after a meeting of the Hungarian-Kazakh Strategic Council on Monday. According to a finance ministry statement, trade turnover with Kazakhstan was 465 million dollars in the first 8 months of 2023. Varga said the 240 companies registered in Hungary that export goods to Kazakhstan provided solid foundations for meeting that goal.
He mentioned Hungarian energy company MOL’s gas extraction project in northern Kazakhstan, to be launched in a few weeks, as well as Hungarian companies active in Kazakhstan’s health industry as “successful projects indicating that we’re going in the right direction”. He said the largest Kazakh private laboratories were using Hungarian equipment to test urine and blood samples, adding that the Hungarian distributor’s exports to Kazakhstan amounted to 1.2 million dollars last year. At the session, representatives of Hungary and Kazakhstan signed cooperation agreements on the application of Hungarian technologies as well as setting up a fish farming pilot project there.