“Kenya is the most developed country in East Africa, is one of Africa’s leading powers in the fight against international terrorism and one of the engines of EU-Africa cooperation”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó told Hungarian news agency MTI by telephone with reference to his official visit to Kenya on Wednesday, where he met with the Kenyan Foreign Minister, the Minister of Industry and the Governor of Nairobi.
He and the Kenyan Minister of Foreign Affairs had agreed on a five-point cooperation and development plan, Mr. Szijjártó told the press.
According to the plan, foreign affairs and foreign policy consultations will become more detailed and regular in future, to which the required agreement has been concluded. The parties also signed a declaration of intent on concluding an economic cooperation agreement between the two countries by the end of this year, in addition to which Hungary will be providing a further 50 scholarships for Kenyan students to study at Hungarian universities beginning in September. This means that Hungary will be providing the third largest number of scholarship places to Kenyan students after China and India, Mr. Szijjártó stressed.
The parties also agreed that with regard to its foreign trade development strategy Kenya will view Hungary as a regional centre for trade with Central Europe and the Western Balkans region and accordingly there is a good chance that the next Kenyan Embassy will be opened in Budapest, meaning the majority of Kenyan products will reach Europe via Hungary, he added.
Kenya is allowing Hungarian enterprises to enter its dynamically expanding market in four areas: Hungarian companies are expecting market opportunities within the field of public transport equipment manufacturing, Hungarian water management and water purification products will be appearing on the Kenyan market, Hungarian agricultural technologies will be applied in the interests of increasing productivity and Hungarian companies will be exporting medical equipment for use in Kenyan hospitals, Mr. Szijjártó explained, adding that a Hungarian-Turkish mission would also be arriving in Kenya during the course of the year in an effort to reduce infant mortality.
Eximbank is providing a credit line of 70 million US Dollars to facilitate the successful appearance of Hungarian enterprises on the Kenyan market.
If the Islamic terrorist organisation al-Shabaab is not successfully subdued in the East African region, hundreds of thousands of people will be forced to leave their homes and that could lead to another wave of immigrants headed for Europe, the Hungarian Foreign Minister said. For this reason, Hungary is campaigning for the European Union to maintain a presence in Somalia via its training mission, to which Hungary is also providing military personnel.
Also a subject of discussion at the meeting was cooperation between the European Union and Africa, Mr. Szijjártó said, stressing that Kenya is one of the leading countries of the East African Community, with which the EU will be signing an economic cooperation agreement in June. It is in Hungary’s interests for this agreement to be ratified as quickly as possible, because the fewer barriers there are to trade, the greater the success of Hungary’s foreign trade activities within the region.
The Foreign Minister was also accompanied on his official visit by 15 Hungarian businesspeople, who will be participating in a Hungarian-Kenyan business forum.
(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade/MTI)
