China and Hungary open new routes to help the construction of the "Belt and Road"
On October 21, a 330-300 passenger plane was fully loaded to help European companies resume work and resume production with urgently needed materials from Zhengzhou, Henan Province to the Liszt Ferenc International Airport in Budapest, the capital of Hungary. This marks the official opening of the regular cargo charter flight route between Zhengzhou and Budapest.
According to reports, this route is on duty by Airbus 330-300 aircraft leased by Hainan Airlines to Hainan Airlines. Three classes a week in October (Monday, Wednesday, Friday), From November 1st to the end of January next year, it will increase to four flights a week (additional Saturday flights), and 170 flights are expected by the end of 2021. The opening of the new route will create new opportunities for the economic and trade exchanges, personnel exchanges and tourism industry between China and Hungary, and help the construction of the "Belt and Road".
The Secretary of State of the Ministry of Innovation and Technology of Hungary, Sanda Tomas, who attended the ceremony of the inaugural flight, said:"The establishment of this route can not only improve the procurement of epidemic prevention materials, but also help Hungarian products enter the Asian market. Air routes have provided new impetus for the two-way trade between Hungary and China, which will help Hungary's economic recovery and further development.
Hungary was one of the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with New China, It is also the first European country to sign an intergovernmental memorandum of understanding with my country to jointly promote the “Belt and Road” construction, It is China's largest source of imports and the third largest trading partner in Central and Eastern Europe. China is Hungary's largest trading partner outside Europe. In recent years, the trade volume between the two countries has continued to grow, the exchanges between the two sides have continued to expand, and mutual investment has grown steadily. Hungary has become the country with the highest concentration of Chinese-funded institutions and Chinese businessmen in Central and Eastern Europe.
Pragmatic cooperation is the foundation for the development of bilateral relations between China and Hungary, It is an important manifestation of promoting the "Belt and Road" initiative and "Opening to the East" strategy to achieve mutual benefit, win-win and common development. Over the years, the development of bilateral relations between China and Hungary has created a number of firsts: Hungary is the first European country to sign the “Belt and Road” intergovernmental cooperation document with China, the first country to establish and launch the "Belt and Road" working group mechanism with China, the first country in Central and Eastern Europe to establish a RMB clearing bank, the first Central and Eastern European country to issue RMB bonds, the first Central and Eastern European country to set up an office of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism,the first European country to set up bilingual teaching in mother tongue and Chinese in China.
The bilateral trade between China and Hungary has seen substantial growth in the context of the epidemic, According to statistics from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Economic Affairs of Hungary, in the first seven months of 2020, the bilateral trade volume between Hungary and China increased by 19% year-on-year, of which Hungarian exports increased by 10%.
Before the opening of this new route, my country's Xi'an, Changsha, Xiamen and other places have opened freight trains to Budapest. On June 10, 2019, the second direct flight between China and Hungary from Shanghai to Budapest was opened, In December 2019, China Eastern Airlines added two new routes of “One Belt One Road”, namely Shanghai Pudong-Chengdu-Budapest and Shanghai Pudong-Xi'an-Budapest. All these have injected new impetus into further enhancing the economic and trade, tourism and cultural exchanges and cooperation between China and Hungary.
Wu Jiang, CEO of the Sino-European Trade and Logistics Cooperation Park responsible for this cargo charter flight, said:"We hope to take advantage of Budapest's regional advantages as the largest aviation hub in Central and Eastern Europe to establish a fast air cargo network covering the entire Central and Eastern Europe, open up aviation logistics channels for overseas warehouses and direct sales platforms, and promote e-commerce exhibitions in Central and Eastern Europe.
Sources of information and pictures: Hungarian United Daily News, China Trade News