The tied aid loan will cover three areas: food safety, water management and information technology, he told a press conference.

Under the arrangements of the scheme, Hungarian companies will get a chance to build slaughterhouses and processing plants in Laos, participate in the modernisation of the sewage network in Vientiane, instal water supply systems for industrial parks and get involved in a project to introduce electronic identification cards, he added.

The Hungarian schemes are adopted to Laos’s economy where the majority of the population lives from farming in the countryside, and the country has abundant water resources, Szijjártó said. He added that previous Hungarian programmes in 2009 and 2016 had been successful.

Another important chapter of cooperation is education, the minister said, adding that Hungary will offer scholarships to 50 Laotian university students from September. Laotian Foreign Minister Saleumxay Kommasith said relations between the two countries stretched far back and Laos could always rely on Hungary as a friend.

Republished with permission of Hungary Matters, MTI’s daily newsletter.
MTI photo: Kovács Tamás