Vietnam and Hungary have agreed on measures to promote mutually-beneficial cooperation between the two countries in various fields during Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan’s visit to Hungary from July 28-31.

During his visit, Deputy PM Nhan met with Acting National Assembly Speaker Istvan Jakab, held talks with his counterpart Zsolt Semjen, visited the Paks nuclear power plant and met with the Vietnamese community there.

At the meetings, Hungarian leaders spoke highly of the socio-economic achievements Vietnam has made over the past years, especially its fairly high economic growth rate in the context of global crisis, as well as the country’s position in the region and the world.

Deputy PM Nhan thanked Hungary for its great support to the Vietnamese people during the fight for independence in the past as well as the present national construction and development while affirming Vietnam’s consistent policy of attaching importance to the traditional friendship and multifaceted cooperation with Hungary.

Besides measures to enhance their bilateral cooperation, especially in economic, trade, investment, human resources training, energy, culture, tourism and sports, the two sides agreed to continue the exchange of visits at different levels to further ties in specific sectors.

The Vietnamese leader also thanked Hungary for considering Vietnam as a priority partner in its policy on official development assistance (ODA) provision, and affirmed that Vietnam is willing to create favourable conditions for Hungarian enterprises to strengthen trade and investment ties with the Southeast Asian country.

The two sides promised to encourage their businesses to meet and attend seminars and trade fairs to learn about each other’s demands and potentials.

They spoke highly of the results of the fourth meeting of the Vietnam-Hungary Joint Committee on Economic Cooperation (which took place in October, 2012 in Hanoi), noting that the two countries need to collaborate to carry out the meeting’s outcomes and improve the working efficiency of this cooperation mechanism.

The Hungarian side affirmed that it will continue to strengthen education and training cooperation with Vietnam and create favourable conditions for Vietnamese students to study in the country.

On the occasion, the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training and the Hungarian Human Resources Ministry signed an exchange programme for the 2013-2015 period, under which the Hungarian side committed to provide 40 scholarships for Vietnamese students every year.

Vietnam and Hungary will also strengthen cooperation and mutual support at multilateral forums and international organisations.

Hungarian leaders spoke highly of the Vietnamese community in the country. The two sides agreed that the community will be a bridge to further boost the traditional friendship and multifaceted cooperation between them.

During the visit, Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Thanh Son, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Tran Viet Thanh and Deputy Minister of Education and Training Tran Quang Quy had separate working sessions with Hungarian partners.-VNA