Vietnam's National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue visited Albertirsa City on Sunday, where he had talks with Deputy Speaker of the Hungarian parliament István Jakab, concentrating on agricultural cooperation, as part of his ongoing visit to Hungary.

Hue arrived in Budapest late on Saturday afternoon (local time) for an official visit from June 26 to 28, at the invitation of Hungarian National Assembly Speaker László Kövér, Nhan Dan (People) newspaper reported.

In his meeting with Deputy Speaker Jakab, Hue thanked him for spending time accompanying the Vietnamese delegation’s visit to Albertirsa and a processing factory of Mirelite Mirsa Co. Ltd., an outstanding local enterprise in clean and green agriculture. 

The host and guest affirmed that the two sides should focus on promoting cooperation in agriculture, especially when Hungary has strengths in such fields as cultivation, processing, marketing, and distribution.

They agreed that there remains ample room for the two countries’ cooperation, and shared the belief that Hue’s visit will certainly contribute to promoting the Vietnam-Hungary bilateral comprehensive partnership, in which the ties between the two parliaments are a significant pillar.

Given the long-standing cooperation and friendship between the two countries, Hungary is ready to continue sharing its development experience with Vietnam, despite fluctuations in the world and regional situations, Jakab said.

While visiting the factory of Mirelite Mirsa, which processes deep frozen fruits, vegetables, and pastry products, Chairman Hue stressed that agriculture and rural development are among the strategic issues for Vietnam. 

Despite accounting for just 12 percent of Vietnam’s economy, agriculture is a pillar of the national economy, Hue told his host. 

The country exported more than US$48.5 billion worth of agricultural products last year, but the value added of Vietnamese farm produce remained low because of the low rate of processing, he said.

Later the same day, Chairman Hue visited the Vietnamese Embassy in Budapest and met the Vietnamese community there.

The official said the Party and state always consider overseas Vietnamese communities as an integral part of the nation and an important factor to foster Vietnam’s cooperation and friendship with other countries.

He also met with representatives from the Vietnamese entrepreneur community in Budapest and affirmed that Europe-based Vietnamese enterprises play an important role in marketing and distributing Vietnamese goods to foreign markets. 

Vietnam and Hungary enhanced bilateral relations to a comprehensive partnership in 2018, when Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong visited the eastern European country, national radio station Voice of Vietnam reported.

Hungary was the first EU member to ratify the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA) and has actively pushed for the approval of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA). 

Last year saw two-way trade between Vietnam and Hungary hit $1.1 billion despite COVID-19. 

Hungary donated more than 250,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine and 100,000 test kits to Vietnam during the COVID-19 pandemic that struck Vietnam in early 2020.

It is committed to providing soft loans of 440 million euros ($464 million) for Vietnam to implement projects that are given priority by both countries. 

In addition, the European country has granted 200 scholarships to Vietnamese students every year since 2018.

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