HUNGARIAN President Katalin Novák arrived in Dar es Salaam on Monday for a three-day working visit. It is the first time a Hungharian President is visiting Tanzania and that marks a significant milestone in our bilateral relations.
Her visit to Tanzania speaks volumes to initiatives to promote economic diplomacy through active international engagement with a focus on the pursuit of economic objectives and at the same time preserving the gains of the past and consolidating the fundamental principles of our traditional foreign policy.
The visit came at the time when global development landscape is changing rapidly with the growing role of China, Brazil and other emerging economies including Hungary in development partnership with African countries.
In this new context, African countries are seeing significant increases in trade, foreign direct investments and official development assistance from those countries.
It is against that backdrop we are optimistic about the future of our bilateral relations and in particular on the prospects of enhancing the mutual cooperation in the areas of trade, commerce, finance, science and technology.
Hungary does not have mineral resources and oil but prides itself with its extensive experience in agriculture, education, human resource development, science, technology and innovation.
We are thankful that Tanzania and Hungary have enjoyed strong bilateral relations for decades that have survived a wind of change in Eastern Europe and major transition in Hungary in the late 1990’s. Hungary has continued to be Tanzania’s biggest partner in the education sector by providing training programmes in various fields of strategic areas.
With her visit to Tanzania we are convinced that we have a firm base to strengthen our close relations by building on the past achievements and exploring new areas and enhancing the relations with pragmatic economic and trade cooperation.
We wish her an enjoyable stay in Tanzania, the Land of Kilimanjaro, Zanzibar and the Serengeti and look forward to further enhancing our bilateral relations for mutual benefits of Tanzanians and Hungarians.