Hungarian embassy to open in Uganda
Hungary opens an embassy in the Republic of Uganda, Africa, blog.atlatszo.hu reports. New Vision, Ugandan news portal reported that Ferenc Dancs, deputy state secretary for international cooperation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, visited Uganda’s capital Kampala, and an agreement was reached.
Information comes from the statement of Sam Kutesa, Ugandan Minister of Foreign Affairs.
“Kutesa informed Dancs that Uganda had formally accepted a request from Hungary to open a Diplomatic Mission at the level of Charge D’Affaires in Kampala in the near future.”
Issues discussed
Dancs said that the country of Uganda is a priority for Hungary in terms of development and co-operation. Hungary is going to explore more business opportunities and business relationships. Hungary will also encourage its private sector to engage in Uganda’s tourism, agro-processing, pharmaceuticals and gas sector.
Dancs and Kutesa also discussed what each country can learn from the other about how to handle the migrant crisis. Uganda has a very different view on the European Migrant Crisis than Hungary.
Uganda recently welcomed one million refugees from South Sudan. Refugees receive a piece of land to cultivate from the Ugandan government.
According to the United Nations (UN), Uganda is one of the best places for refugees.
Dancs and Kutesa have already met in May to discuss agricultural matters. It emerged that Hungary would help to modernise Ugandan laws on genetically modified products. It also came up that Ugandan university students majoring in agriculture might come to study in Hungary.
One of the most corrupt countries in the world
Uganda is one of the most corrupt countries of the world based on Transparency International’s (TI) survey. To be exact, Uganda is the 151st most corrupt country in the world according to TI’s list. The country has also been criticised for its attitude towards the LMBTQ community. LMBTQ people are still discriminated and can even be arrested. Laws apply to visitors/tourists as well, so it is important to be aware of these issues before one decides to visit the country of Uganda.
Opening to the South
Péter Szijjártó launched the Opening to the South strategy with a focus on Africa and Latin America in 2015. Back then, Szijjártó wanted to open four new embassies (Ecuador, Ethiopia, Ghana, Angola) and six trading houses (Ethiopia, Angola, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Kenya). Uganda was not even on the list in 2015. Since then, many trading houses opened, then closed.
Even though Hungary spent 17 million EUR (5.3 billion HUF) on embassies all over the world, Hungary’s commercial traffic in the African and South-American region increased only by 4%. According to 444.hu, the new African embassies either do not operate yet, or have some kind of technical difficulties, and there was absolutely no point in spending 9.6 million EUR (3 billion HUF) on them.
Featured photo: www.newvision.co.ug
Source: www.blog.atlatszo.hu