The fifth session of the Hungarian-Indian Joint Committee for Economic Cooperation was held in New Delhi on 6-7 March 2018 and was co-chaired by Minister of State for Cultural and Science Diplomacy István Íjgyártó and his Indian counterpart, Secretary for Industrial Policy and Promotion Ramesh Abhishek. At the meeting, the parties reviewed the current state of economic cooperation and possible directions for its further development.
During his visit, Minister of State István Íjgyártó was received by Minister of State for External Affairs M. J. Akbar, Minister of State for Human Resource Development Satya Pal Singh and Union Minister of State for Trade and Industry C. R. Chaudhary. In addition, he also held meetings with Chairman of Indian Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee Mr. Shashi Taroor and the International Finance Corporation’s country manager for India Mr. Jun Zsang.
On the sidelines of the session of the Joint Committee, the Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency concluded a three-year cooperation agreement with Invest India, aimed at supporting investment concepts and investment promotion projects, and the joint realisation of investment promotion programs and events.
The co-chairs welcomed the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Hungary and the Republic of India. They confirmed that they would like to continue the high level of cooperation between their two countries and to expand practical partnership in all fields.
The highlighted areas of cooperation at the Joint Committee meeting included trade and investment, agriculture and the food industry, aviation, the space industry, energy, water, science and technology, information and communications technology, transport, education and culture, and healthcare and the health industry, in addition to which the parties also review opportunities for cooperation within the field of tourism.
They welcomed the fact that an increasing number of Indian students are continuing their studies in Hungary within the framework of the Hungarian Government’s Stipendium Hungaricum scholarship programme, in addition to which they agreed to extend their existing treaties on education and culture. The parties highlighted the fact that the upcoming 10th session of the regularly convening Joint Committee for Science and Technology will be taking place on 21 march 2018.
The parties agreed that the participation of small and medium-sized enterprises in bilateral trade must be encouraged, in addition to which they mutually briefed each other on their countries’ investment promotion strategies and on potential fields of investment. The Hungarian Government has concluded strategic partnership agreements with three major Indian corporations to date.
The fourth India-Europe 29 Business Forum was held on 5-6 March 2018 with the involvement of Hungarian National Trading House Cls, which is extremely active with relation to boosting economic relations, and the Hungarian Embassy in New Delhi, at which Hungarian enterprises held business-to-business (B2B) talks primarily within the fields of info-communications technologies, agriculture and the food industry, and the chemical industry.
(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade)
