Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó held bilateral talks with the Foreign Ministers of Malaysia, Singapore, Laos and Myanmar in Bangkok on Friday on the sidelines of a summit of European Union and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Foreign Ministers.
Reporting on his negotiations by telephone to Hungarian news agency MTI, the Minister said: Hungary and Singapore are linked by the fact that “the world of start-ups based on innovative research and development” is extremely strong in both countries and Singapore regards Hungary as its main cooperation partner in this regard.
We have opened an 820 million U.S. Dollar credit line to enable Hungarian enterprises who perform activities based on research & development and innovation and which represent high added value to be successful in this extremely important market, which may be a difficult one, but offers good growth opportunities, he continued.
In addition, Singapore had issued further import licences for meat industry product which will allow premium Hungarian food industry products to be sold on the Singapore market, he explained.
Mr. Szijjártó highlighted the fact that he and his Singaporean counterpart had agreed with relation to inter-regional cooperation that the parties must avoid interfering in each other’s internal affairs and should instead try to understand what each country is doing and why. Hungary is supporting the earliest possible conclusion of a partnership agreement between the EU and Singapore, he added.
With regard to negotiations with his Malaysian counterpart, the Hungarian Foreign Minister told the press that they had agreed on the signing of an economic cooperation agreement and on the fact that 40 Malaysian students would be receiving scholarships to attend Hungarian universities. An agreement was also reached on amending existing air traffic regulations in the interests of enabling Malaysia Airlines to immediately begin marketing flights to Hungary, he said.
Concerning Laos, Mr. Szijjártó said that a 30 million dollar tied aid loan programme had been launched within the framework of which Hungarian companies would be establishing the Asian country’s food safety system. In addition, students from Laos will be receiving scholarships to attend Hungarian universities, he added.
On the subject of his negotiations with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Myanmar, Mr. Szijjártó said that 30 scholarship students from the country would begin their studies at Hungarian universities in September. A Hungarian company has been awarded the opportunity to develop Myanmar’s mobile phone payment network, as a result of which Hungary will have a major presence on the country’s info-communications market in the upcoming period, the Foreign Minister said.