PHOTOS: Africa Expo opened in Budapest

Photo: facebook.com/afrikaexpobudapest

Africa Expo and Fair is an annual international forum focused on the building of African-Hungarian relations, presenting business and cooperation opportunities, and boosting partnerships between African and Hungarian stakeholders.

Tristan Azbej, the foreign ministry’s state secretary in charge of persecuted Christians, outlined Hungary’s plans to expand cooperation with the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC), at the Africa Expo in Budapest on Friday.

The event was organised to present the results of a peer review the OECD DAC conducted in Hungary last year. Hungary’s strategy until 2025 aims to overcome the most significant challenges for the international community, such as poverty and inequality, Azbej told the event. In addition to Africa, the Hungarian government is also focusing on the Middle East and the European Union’s neighbourhood, he said.

As regards the government’s Hungary Helps humanitarian programme, the state secretary noted that it had aided so far some one million people in staying in their homeland or returning there. He underscored the need to protect Christian communities threatened by extremism. Hungary has offered scholarships in 60 countries since the launch of the scheme in 2017, he noted.

Read also: Hungary helps persecuted Christians all over the world

Pilar Garrido, the OECD Director for Development Cooperation, thanked the government for its openness during last year’s peer review. The DAC’s report on the review highlights a fourfold increase in official development assistance (ODA) between 2010 and 2021, which now accounts for 0.29 percent of gross national income (GNI). Hungary also responds to the needs and requests of its partners, and the government works together with local civil organisations, the report said.

It highlights, at the same time, relations with other countries that focus on long-term consequences and sustainability effects as an area to be developed. Certain policies, which the DAC said contradicted international efforts for sustainable development, should be reappraised, the report said.