ASTANA, Kazakhstan, November 3. Kazakhstan sees significant potential for increasing trade with Hungary and is ready to boost the export of Kazakh products to Hungary across 95 items worth about $700 million, said Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Alikhan Smailov during a meeting with Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orban, Trend reports.
"Hungary is an important trade and economic partner of Kazakhstan in the EU. Trade turnover between the countries last year increased by 24 percent to $172 million," he said.
According to Smailov, the positive trend continues this year.
"I propose to make joint efforts to expand the range of supplied goods," he said.
The Kazakh PM noted that there are also great prospects in investment cooperation. In total, about $330 million of direct Hungarian investments have been invested in Kazakhstan since 2005. About $75 million was invested in 2021-2022 alone, which is almost a quarter of the total.
"Today our interaction is reinforced by new projects. A striking example is the planned launch of one of the largest gas condensate fields, Rozhkovskoye, together with the Hungarian company MOL. We call on Hungarian business to further expand their participation in joint investment projects," Smailov added.
Kazakhstan’s foreign trade turnover in 2022 reached a historically high level of $134.4 billion. The trade surplus amounted to $34.3 billion, which is 82 percent better than in 2021 and four times more than in 2020.
Export volumes amounted to $84.4 billion. By 2021, foreign sales volumes had increased by 40 percent, and by 2020, they had increased by 78 percent. Import volumes to Kazakhstan reached $50 billion for the first time, updating the 2013 record ($48.8 billion).
At the end of 2022, the gross inflow of foreign direct investment into Kazakhstan amounted to $28 billion, which is 17.7 percent more than the results of 2021 ($23.8 billion). This is a record figure over the past 10 years - in 2012, the volume of FDI reached $28.9 billion.