Minister of State for Energy Affairs Pál Kovács and Deputy Minister for Education Pham Manh Hung signed a bilateral agreement on nuclear training, research, administrative and technical cooperation in the presence of President of the Republic of Hungary János Áder and President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Truong Tan Sang in Sándor Palace on 16 September 2013.

Knowledge is Hungary’s greatest, priceless and unique value, said Minister of State Pál Kovács about the cooperation agreement. Hungary is ready to establish international educational cooperation with nations that make responsible decisions to secure long-term and safe energy supply for generations to come taking account of sustainable development objectives, he added. Vietnam will start to build its first nuclear power plant next year and will be operating a total of 10 reactor blocks of 10,000 MW nuclear capacity by 2030.

Four consecutive groups of Vietnamese professionals arrived in Hungary since September 2012 within the large-scale nuclear training program (HUVINETT) which was the first step of the cooperation agreement between Hungary and Vietnam. Nearly 120 participants completed the 6-week theoretical and practical course held at Budapest University of Technology and Economics and at the Maintenance Training Centre of MVM Paks Nuclear Power Plant Ltd. Another 40 Vietnamese expert have started their studies this September.

Negotiations were held in Budapest and Hanoi since last March at Ministerial and High-Level in order to extend the HUVINETT program.

(Ministry of National Development, Communications Department)