A group of Hungarian enterprises lead by the Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Hungary, Laszlo Parragh, on May 21 visited Ho Chi Minh City to seek partnerships with local businesses.

The Hungarian firms mostly operate in agriculture, food, pharmaceuticals, tourism, information technology, education and training, and import-export.

At a Vietnam-Hungary business forum held on the same day, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh office of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Vo Tan Thanh, noted that the two countries have agreed to further their affiliation in agriculture, pharmaceuticals and energy, providing a good chance for businesses of both sides to boost their partnership.

He suggested that both Vietnamese and Hungarian enterprises should design strategies to make full use of the cooperation opportunities, contributing to realising bilateral agreements and increasing two-way trade.

Recently, annual trade between Vietnam and Hungary has maintained steady at 100 million USD, he noted. Vietnam mainly exports apparel, computers, wood and wooden products to Hungary, while importing machinery, equipment, pharmaceuticals, animal feed and raw materials.

According to Parragh, Hungary, with its location in the centre of the European Union, can act as a gateway for Vietnam to enter the EU market.

He said the Hungarian Government is encouraging more investment in areas of high quality agricultural products, agricultural technology and renewable energy.

Hungary always considers Vietnam as an important partner among the ASEAN member countries.

Hungary, a member of Visegrad Group (better known as V4, which consists of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland) and the EU, has also given the idea of combining policies of V4 with ASEAN members to enhance cooperation between the two groupings, especially in trade and investment, he noted.-VNA