30 October 2019
The pre-forum session to the Budapest Eurasia Forum is being held these days. The event focuses on cooperation with Eurasia and long-term sustainable economic policy. The current issues of the changing economic world order in the 21st century will be discussed in financial, economic and scientific panel talks. György Matolcsy, Governor of the MNB, Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Veronika Skvortsova, Minister of Health of the Russian Federation gave a speech at the opening ceremony on Wednesday. Andrey Beliyaninov, Chairman of the Eurasian Development Bank, made a keynote address at the event. Together with Mihály Patai, Deputy Governor of the MNB, he co-signed a Memorandum of Understanding confirming cooperation between the two institutions.
The pre-forum session, named The Pre-Forum Session of Budapest Eurasia Forum, was held between 29 and 31 October 2019 in the Buda Castle Quarter. The preparatory event to the series of international conferences, to be held annually in Budapest from 2020, focused on the promotion of long-term sustainable future relations and current geopolitical and economic issues, required for its practical implementation, in the spirit of Eurasian cooperation. Following Governor György Matolcsy’s welcome address, Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Veronika Skvortsova, Minister of Health of the Russian Federation gave a speech at the opening ceremony. Following the high-level political opening ceremony, representatives of Hungarian and international political, economic and scientific life conducted panel discussions about geopolitical, economic, financial, multilateral cooperation, and infrastructure, connectivity, as well as culture.
The following renowned foreign guests delivered speeches: Alexander Morozov, Director of Research and Forecasting Department of the Bank of Russia, Andrey Sushentsov, Institute for International Studies, MGIMO University, David A. Jones, faculty member at the Institute of International Relations, University of Warsaw, Assylbek Davletov, Chief Fintech Officer at Astana Financial Services Authority, Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief Fintech Officer at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Khee Giap Tan, Co-Director of the think tank Asia Competitiveness Institute, Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore, and Yanni Li, Executive Director of ICBC.
Several international delegations visited Hungary to attend the event. These included representatives from the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB), who conducted bilateral consultations headed by Andrey Beliyaninov, Chairman of the Bank’s Board of Directors, with the MNB’s senior management, and signed an agreement on the promotion of cooperation between the two institutions. The regional development bank, established at the initiative of the Presidents of Russia and Kazakhstan in 2006, now has 6 member states including Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Its key objective is to promote the development of a market economy, to ensure economic growth and to intensify investment relations between member states by way of its investments. The total value of EDB’s investment portfolio is USD 3.9 billion. Currently, there are nearly 100 ongoing projects using EDB funding.
The latest addition to the Magyar Nemzeti Bank book series, entitled ‘Long term sustainable econo-mix’, was also presented at the new international conference. The book takes sustainable economic theories under scrutiny.
Building on the success of the event, the Budapest Eurasia Forum’s objective is to strengthen Hungary’s role as a link between the East and the West through Eurasian cooperation, to facilitate a dialogue among different cultures and countries with different specificities and to lay the theoretical foundations of long-term sustainable economics.
