Following talks with his Vietnamese counterpart Bui Thanh Son in Budapest, Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said Vietnam’s flourishing economy offers great opportunities to export- and investment-oriented Hungary.
Minister Szijjártó noted that Hungary’s annual exports to the Southeast Asian country are now worth around 100 million US dollars. Exports have been boosted by government measures that ease the export of poultry products, medical equipment and pharmaceuticals, Minister Szijjártó said. Recent talks on enabling pork exports to Vietnam “are also in the home stretch”, he added. The European Union and Vietnam signed an “ambitious” free trade agreement recently, aimed at scrapping 99% of tariffs by 2030, he said. The Hungarian and Vietnamese governments are slated to sign 14 agreements in the coming days, Minister Szijjártó said. The minister said the “most important” among those agreements would be the one on foreign policy cooperation, as both countries were pro-peace and wished to aid war-torn countries. “We believe in civilised cooperation between East and West,” he said. Hungary and Vietnam will also sign cooperation agreements in culture and water management, which may contribute to the export of domestic technologies, Minister Szijjártó said. The two countries will also step up cooperation against international crime, contributing to security in both countries, he said. Universities will also conclude a total of 10 agreements based on the cooperation currently offering government grants to 900 Vietnamese students in Hungary.