JAKARTA, 1 February 2016 – In recognising the immense potential of the ASEAN Community, Hungary today expressed its strong interest to forge closer ties with the region. Prime Minister of Hungary H.E. Viktor Orbán, who paid an official visit to the ASEAN Secretariat, conveyed this message in his meeting with the Secretary-General of ASEAN, H.E. Le Luong Minh.
Prime Minister Orbán said Hungary would like to deepen cooperation with ASEAN in the areas of culture and education. He conveyed that Hungary would offer scholarship programmes for students from ASEAN Member States to study in Hungary. Currently ASEAN and Hungary are working on signing a Cooperation Agreement on Education, which among others, aims at providing scholarships to students from ASEAN Member States.
He added that both sides should work closely to promote people-to-people interactions to bolster mutual understanding of culture and diversity.
Noting the economic potential of ASEAN, Prime Minister Orbán said that Hungary supports stronger trade and investment ties under the ASEAN-EU framework of cooperation.
Secretary-General Minh highlighted to Prime Minister Orbán that the realisation of the ASEAN Community is significant as it signals to the rest of the world how far and how well ASEAN Member States have achieved in coming together as one Community. He said it is a historic milestone for the region and a culmination of ASEAN’s resilience and dynamism throughout a journey that spans nearly half a century.
According to the ASEAN Secretary-General, ASEAN’s strong economic growth would provide excellent opportunities for the expansion of trade and investment with Hungary and the EU. He further said that the region is the 7th largest economy in the world and is on track to become the 4th largest economy by 2050. ASEAN had a combined GDP of US$2.6 trillion in 2014.