Baku. TurkicWorld:

Hungary and Kazakhstan aim to increase trade turnover between the countries to $1 billion, TurkicWorld reports.

Finance Minister Mihály Varga highlighted this goal following the Hungarian-Kazakh Strategic Council meeting.

As he noted, the current trade volume had already reached $465 million.

According to him, the focus is on diversifying trade beyond energy, with successes in healthcare and other sectors.

This initiative is part of Hungary's Eastern Opening policy, which has expanded economic relationships with Central Asia and the Caucasus, especially amidst the geopolitical shifts in the region.

As previously stated by the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Alikhan Smailov, 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.

The Kazakh PM noted that there are also great prospects for 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.