Finance Minister notes growing importance of bilateral ties with Vietnam

Vietnam has been an increasingly important partner for Hungary, a tendency indicated by regular intergovernmental meetings, and growing trade and cultural ties, Finance Minister Mihály Varga said at the 2nd Hungary-Vietnam university rectors’ conference in Budapest on Tuesday.

The Vietnamese government is committed to broadening economic and cultural ties and mapping out new opportunities for cooperation, Varga said, adding that cooperation in recent years had been “exceptionally fruitful”.

Hungary appreciates Vietnam’s economic achievements through which Vietnam “has the development potential to dominate the South-East Asian region”.

Varga noted that bilateral trade with Vietnam grew by 80 percent in 2017, with a turnover of 357 million dollars. This tendency continued into 2018, he added.

The minister mentioned farming, food manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, chemical production, water management, health services, information and communications technology, engineering, defence, environmental industries and renewable energies as areas for further cooperation with Vietnam.

Varga noted that some 3,000 Vietnamese students have graduated from Hungarian universities in recent decades, adding, “This indicates the global competitiveness of Hungary’s higher education”.

Nguyen Phu Trong, the head of Vietnam’s Communist Party, pointed to the traditions of the education cooperation between the two countries, and said that the Vietnamese experts who had graduated from Hungarian universities since the 1950s were an “invaluable asset” to his country.

He also voiced appreciation to Hungary for offering scholarships to 200 Vietnamese youths in the current Stipendium Hungaricum programme.

Featured image: MTI

Source: MTI