“Sixty small and medium-sized Hungarian enterprises will “establish Laos’s food industry and food safety system’ within the framework of a 10 billion forint investment programme”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó told Hungarian news agency MTI following negotiations in the Asian country.
Hungary’s Eximbank will be financing the investment programme in the form of a 30 million dollar tied aid.
The 10 billion forint (EUR 32M) investment programme represents many years of market opportunity for Hungarian agriculture and food industry companies in Laos, where agriculture is responsible for generating 26.5% of the gross national product (GDP), Mr. Szijjártó said, adding that in view of the fact that Laos is a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) a 600 million strong market is opening up its opportunities to these enterprises.
The Hungarian Foreign Minister also pointed out that Laos is Asia’s most rapidly developing economy with an average annual GDP increase of 7 percent over the past ten years.
The first facility of the investment programme will already be inaugurated this Tuesday, Mr. Szijjártó told the press. The is a slaughterhouse meat processing plant built and developed by Hungarian companies in the city of Namsuang, which will be Laos’s first modern factory that meets international standards.
The investment programme is complemented by cooperation on agricultural and food industry training, about which an agreement was also concluded on Tuesday, and according to which Hungarian universities (primarily agriculture faculties) will be welcoming 50 scholarship students each year.
An agreement was also signed concerning the field of water management within the framework of which Laos will be making use of Hungarian water purification and drinking water system technologies.
In addition, Mr. Szijjártó and his Laotian counterpart also concluded an agreement according to which Hungarian companies will be providing software and other IT solutions designed to help run several cities in Laos.
Finally, the parties agreed that Laos would be supporting Hungary’s application for membership of the United Nations Human Rights Council for the period 2017-2019, the Foreign Minister told the press.