BEIJING, May 22 (Xinhua) -- This year marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of China-Hungary diplomatic relations.
Here are some facts and figures revealing the growing vitality of economic exchanges between the two countries:
-- China is Hungary's most important trading partner outside European Union while Hungary remains China's third largest trading partner among the Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs).
-- Last year, bilateral trade volume reached 10.88 billion dollars, with a year-on-year growth of 7.5 percent, while China's imports from Hungary increased by 6.5 percent to 4.34 billion U.S. dollars.
-- By the end of 2018, China's cumulative investment in Hungary has reached 3.27 billion dollars, covering industries including chemical engineering, finance, new energy and logistics, data from the Ministry of Commerce showed.
-- Achievements in financial cooperation have been remarkable. In 2015, with the support of Hungarian national bank, the People's Bank of China -- China's central bank -- authorized the Bank of China to act as the Chinese yuan clearing bank in Hungary, which is also the first Chinese yuan clearing bank among CEECs.
-- Hungary signed the memorandum of understanding over the Belt and Road Initiative in June 2015, becoming the first European country that has established and started the Belt and Road working group mechanism with China, which signified a synergy of the China-proposed initiative with Hungary's "opening to the East" policy.
-- The building of the Hungary-Serbia railway, an important cooperation project, has progressed smoothly. China Railway Express trains from Chinese cities arrived in Budapest in 2017.
-- The number of Chinese tourists visiting Hungary exceeded the quarter-million mark in 2018, thanks to the opening of 14 Hungarian visa offices in China and direct flights connecting Hungary with China.
