Introduction:
Within the Embassy of Hungary in Bucharest, the following activities and issues fall within the competence of the Commercial Office:
- to improve the Hungarian exports of goods and services to enter the Romanian market
- to represent the interests of the Hungarian companies
- to inform the Hungarian companies about the Romanian market and business possibilities
- to assist to form new partnerships
- to organize professional programs, aiming to improve the trade and investment promotion
- to assure other customer oriented supports
The activity of the agricultural diplomacy consists of the following:
- to improve the possibility of placing the agricultural and food products in the host country based on the market needs
- to follow the cooperation between the institutions and fill them with new content
- to improve the direct partnership between the producer groups
- to inform the Hungarian agricultural and food trade companies about the host country’s market, economic and business conditions, with the purpose of promoting the exports and the investments
- to help developing the long term bilateral partnership of environment protection, in line with the global challenges
The evolution of the Hungarian- Romanian bilateral trade in 2015
In 2015, Romania was the second largest export market for Hungary, after Germany. The Hungarian exports with a growth of 2,9% reached more than 4,7 billion Euros, while the imports with more than 2% higher value amounted to 2,5 billion Euros. Therefore, in total the growth of the bilateral trade was 2,6%, producing almost 2,2 billion Euros Hungarian trade surplus, resulting in a 4% growth in comparison with the year of 2014.
From all of the Hungarian exports to Romania, by the main type of goods, the manufactured products had the largest share (37%) resulting in 1,7 billion Euros. They are followed by machines and means of transportation (33%), food, drinks and tobacco (19%), energy carriers (9%), and raw materials (3%). As to the decrease of the export of petroleum products and medicine, it was offset by the increase of transport of cereals and telecommunication items. In 2015, in the structure of the imported goods there was a decrease to the greatest extent in the imports of the energy carriers (-20%) followed by raw materials (-17%), food, drink and tobacco (-8%). There was an increase in the case of machines, means of transportation (14%) and manufactured products (6%).
In 2015, agricultural and food products were exported to Romania worth 1 billion Euros, thus placing Romania as second on the list of the main export partners of Hungary.
The Central European Trade Promotion Network operated by The Hungarian National Trading House Zrt. with its six offices in Arad, Nagyvárad, Szatmárnémeti, Kolozsvár, Marosvasárhely, Székelyudvarhely and Sepsiszentgyörgy, offers assistance to Hungarian enterprises to enter the Romanian market, with information and finding business partners.
Major Hungarian investments in Romania
According to the 2015 data of the Romanian registry court, there were more than 13 thousand companies with Hungarian capital share present on the Romanian market, with more than 860 million euros registered capital. The Hungarian companies playing also an important regional role have stable and good market positions all over the country.
The results of MOL Romania in 2015, with regards to the fuel-sale grew by 17%, in comparison with the previous year. In the background of the positive results, one of the reasons is the takeover of the 42 AGIP filling stations from the Italian ENI company in 2014. Moreover, as the result of its own development, the network of MOL Romania has been enlarged with 12 more gas stations. Therefore, MOL Romania at the moment has more than 200 fuel-service stations, providing 19% market share.
In 2015, OTP Romania Bank finished the purchasing process of the Portuguese owned Millenium Bank, operating in Romania. This resulted in the increase of the OTP’s market share up to 2,1%, moving the company to the 11th place on the list of the banks market share by total assets. The company finished with 5 million Euros after tax profit in 2015, which is double comparing it to the previous year. OTP Romania has more than 100 offices throughout the country.
Comparing the sales results of 2015 with 2014, the Romanian subsidiary of the pharmaceutical company Richter Gedeon’s reached a 15% increase, totaling up to 165 million Euros. To this result, the distribution and retail divisions (more than 120 pharmacies) contributed the most, which outcomes increased with 18%, thus the total income approached 150 million Euros.
In the Romanian market, the MVM Group having investments in the energetic sector continues the regional expansion, and eager to explore the market possibilities. The MVM Partners Zrt. is present in the electricity trade. In 2015 it had a more than 650GWh turnover in the Romanian electricity market.
Bilateral infrastructure projects:
On July 11th, 2015 the first Hungarian-Romanian highway connection was inaugurated with the opening of the highway sections between Mako-Csanádpalota (HU-M43) and Nagylak- Arad (RO-A1) to the traffic. According to the plans, the next Hungarian-Romanian highway connection will be the construction of the highway sections leading to Nagykereki (HU-M4) - Nagyszántó (RO-A3), the handover is planned by the end of 2018.
Furthermore, Hungary is interested in the opening of the 10 cross-border public road connections which have been already constructed. It would mean an important step with regards to the commercial and social development of the border regions of the two states, and to the exploitation of other possible projects.
Both countries are interested in the development of their transborder railway connection, by improving the quality of the tracks, and the increase of speed of the trains.
Our aim is, to create a closer cooperation in the field of electric cars and the necessary charging stations.
