Hungarian exports to Azerbaijan grow - trade chief

Hungarian exports to Azerbaijan have grown at a clip, expanding by 29 percent in the past year, the government's trade chief told MTI on Wednesday.

Peter Szijjarto noted that the next meeting of the Hungarian-Azeri mixed economic committee would be held at the end of January.

Szijjarto has been the co-chairman of the committee since July 2012.

"An important element of the government's strategy of opening up to the East is further stimulating economic ties with the Caucasus region," he said.

"The next meeting of the mixed economic committee taking place on Jan. 27-28 in Azerbaijan will be dedicated to this goal, and key topics will be bilateral economic ties, education, tourism and the visa regime."

He mentioned the opening of a Hungarian trading house in Baku in 2012 as one of the noteworthy accomplishments in this area. Another is the direct service established by Wizz Air in June last year between the two capitals, he said, adding the service has proved popular on both sides.

Bilateral trade exclusively comprises Hungarian exports, which amounted to 54.2 million US dollars in the first ten months of 2013, up 28.5 percent from the same period a year earlier.