First Deputy Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade L. Kudratov had negotiations with Deputy State Secretaries for Export Development and Eastern Relations of Hungary I. Joo and A. Barani via video-conferencing.

The discussion touched upon the current agenda of the Uzbek-Hungarian partnership and the prospects for its expansion in priority areas.

The focus was on the prospects for effective cooperation in the industry involving the business circles of the two countries. The Hungarian side received the list of 40 promising projects in agriculture, animal husbandry, pharmaceuticals, chemical industry, where the initiators from the Uzbek side were already identified. The Hungarian colleagues expressed their willingness to immediately start the review of these projects, as well as to search and identify potential partners among Hungarian entrepreneurs.

They noted a significant increase in trade between Uzbekistan and Hungary reached at the end of 2019, as well as positive trends in mutual trade that emerged in 2020. The parties exchanged views on the further increase of commercial turnover between the two countries and outlined specific steps here, including the opening of a joint trading house and the organization of an exhibition of Uzbek products in Budapest.

They also discussed the progress in preparation to the next meeting of the Uzbek-Hungarian Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation scheduled for November this year.

They separately considered the cooperation in the scientific and educational areas. Here, the particular significance touches upon the agreement on cooperation between the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Specialized Education of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Hungarian University of Debrecen. Its signing will provide an introduction of the bilateral practice of recognizing double diplomas, and opportunities for the opening of joint faculties in Hungary and Uzbekistan.

The parties agreed to organize the visit of the top officials of the Hungarian University of Debrecen to Uzbekistan in order to discuss practical aspects of further cooperation.

The discussion considered the issues of interregional partnership. There were prerequisites to establish twin-city relations between Veszprem region of Hungary and Navoi region of Uzbekistan, as well as between Peshten and Tashkent regions, respectively.

The negotiations resulted in an agreement to develop a regular dialogue under the areas specified in order to qualitatively and timely implement the negotiated arrangements.