“A Hungarian foreign trade and consular representation will be opening in Panama”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in a statement to Hungarian news agency MTI prior to his meetings in Panama City on Wednesday.

“Thanks to the Panama Canal, the country is unavoidable from a transport, trade, security and strategic perspective alike. Precisely for this reason, it is important for Hungary to establish suitable positions within the framework of its Southern Opening policy”, the politician said.

Mr. Szijjártó’s main negotiating partners will be Minister of Trade and Industry Nestor Gonzales, Vice President and Foreign Minister Isabel de Saint de Alvarado, as well as Cardinal José Domingo Ulloa Mendieta, in addition to which he will also be received by head of state Juan Carlos Valera.

The parties will be concluding an agreement on higher education cooperation as a result of which five students from Panama will be able to attend Hungarian universities each year within the framework of the Government’s scholarship programme. “Hungarian-Panamanian cooperation in international organisations is exemplary, and we regularly support each other’s arguments in the UN”, Mr. Szijjártó stated.

The Minister announced that the Hungarian Government has established a 160-million-dollar credit line at Eximbank to encourage business cooperation between the two countries’ enterprises and facilitate the increased market presence of Hungarian enterprises in Panama.

“Opportunities in Panama will primarily be opening for enterprises involved in water management, partly in view of the regular droughts experienced in the western part of the country, and partly because of the shortage of drinking water”, the Hungarian Foreign Minister told the press.

(Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister/MTI)