National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue waves to Speaker of the Hungarian National Assembly László Kövér. (Photo: NDO)

During his online talks with Speaker of the Hungarian National Assembly László Kövér, Hue spoke highly of the fact that Hungary has considered Vietnam a priority partner in its official development assistance (ODA) policy, with preferential loans worth EUR440 million committed to projects in the priority fields for bilateral cooperation.

He also welcomed the establishment of the Hungarian culture and community centre in Vietnam.

For his part, Kövér expressed his hope that Vietnamese and Hungarian competent agencies will further discuss mechanisms to promote the bilateral cooperation in various spheres, including information-technology and telecoms, during a meeting of the joint committee of the two governments in October.

Vietnamese firms should regard Hungary as a bridge to boost their investment in Europe, he suggested.

The two leaders noted with pleasure new development steps in bilateral economic ties, saying that despite the COVID-19 pandemic, two-way trade still reached about US$1.3 billion last year, up 40 percent from the previous year.

However, they said, the bilateral trade has remained unstable and yet to match potential of the two countries.

Regarding legislative ties, they agreed to maintain the exchange of all-level delegations, and continue their mutual support and sharing of experience in law building, supervision over the operations of the State apparatus, and personnel training.

The two sides will also organise more symposiums and increase exchanges between friendship parliamentarians’ groups, and female and young legislators, to raise mutual understanding and strengthen the ties between the two legislatures, while beefing up cooperation and mutual support at multilateral forums.

The leaders shared the view on the important role of the Vietnamese community in Hungary to people-to-people diplomacy.

They exchanged invitations to visit each other's countries. Both accepted the invitations with pleasure and pledged to make the visits at an appropriate time.