Mr. Szilveszter Bus, Deputy State Secretary for Opening to the South represented the Hungarian Government at the “Tunisia 2020” international investment conference held in Tunis on November 29-30, 2016.

The main hosts of the conference were Caid Essebsi, president of Tunisia, alongside with Manuel Valls, Prime Minister of France and His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Emir of the State of Qatar. The conference hosted participants from more than 70 countries together with the representatives of numerous international companies.

Mr. Szilveszter Bus made his speech in the presence of the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Tunisia. He emphasized Hungary’s strong commitment to supporting Tunisia and offered his congratulations to the country’s successful democratic transition, which serves as a model for the whole region. He added that the stability of Tunisia is in strong correlation with the security of Europe, therefore strong cooperation with Tunisia is a common European and international interest.

He underlined, that Hungary aims at supporting the human capacity and knowledge based capital in Tunisia, thus investing in the future of the country. As a first step, the Government of Hungary decided to significantly raise the number of recipients of the Stipendium Hungaricum scholarship program obtainable for Tunisian students from to 150 places in the academic year of 2017-2018.

On the margins of the international conference, Szilveszter Bus conducted numerous bilateral discussions at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Higher Education of Tunisia. These meetings reflected the friendly political relations between the two countries, which serve as a strong foundation of future economic, educational, agricultural and scientific cooperation.

There are many similarities between our countries that must be utilized in various ways. The recent visit of the Tunisian Minister of Foreign Affairs and the planned visit of Tunisia’s Prime Minister to Hungary scheduled for 2017 will give further impetus to the cooperation in different areas of mutual interest. We consider that there is a high potential in the direct cooperation in agriculture and education, moreover, the joint efforts of our universities and research institutes offer good perspectives.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade)