The 22nd assembly of the Hungarian-German Forum, which was launched by German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and late Hungarian Prime Minister József Antall in 1991, began in Berlin on November 8. More than forty politicians, experts and scholars – including the German and the Hungarian Foreign Minister – attend the two-day forum.
Hungarian Foreign Minister János Martonyi held talks with his Sir Lankan counterpart Gamini Lakshman Peiris November 8, 2012. The parties agreed on restarting political cooperation and strengthening economic and trade relations.
On Wednesday at the opening of a meeting for the directors of the Balassi Institute – which coordinates Hungarian cultural institutes abroad – the Minister of Public Administration and Justice said that it is a national strategy goal for there to be one Hungarian institute in each Central European country.
Changes in Hungarian public administration and infrastructure development in the border region were discussed at the Hungarian-Austrian Regional Coordination Forum’s latest meeting on Wednesday in the town of Körmend, Hungary.
In the third quarter of 2012 the number of employed people increased by almost 80 000 compared to the corresponding period of the previous year, and simultaneously the employment rate among those aged 15-74 years has reached the level of 51.4 percent which has been the best figure of the past ten years. The increase in employment has been the consequence of the labour market measures of the Government and the optimal organization of public employment schemes. Going forward, the Government adheres to its aim of introducing potent measures in order to sustain these positive tendencies in the field of public employment schemes and by stimulating hiring and investment in the private sector. The Job Protection Action Plan has been one of the instruments for fulfilling this purpose.
Hungary considers it very important that the European Union should increasingly promote the policy of free trade and the upcoming Irish presidency of the EU is likely to support this trend, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Thursday after meeting Irish counterpart Taoiseach Enda Kenny.
V. Budapest Human Rights Forum
Budapest, 8 November 2012
On Wednesday evening Prime Minister Viktor Orbán received Kevin Turner, Vice President of Microsoft in the Parliament Building.
State Secretary for Rural Development Zsolt V. Németh and Magdaléna Lacko-Bartošová, Slovakian State Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, discussed the two countries' experiences with regard to local processing and distribution at a meeting held at the Hungarian Ministry of Rural Development with the aim of making preparations for the upcoming session of the Hungarian-Slovak Joint Committee on Agriculture.
At a press conference held in the recess of high-level talks organised in Budapest on Wednesday, State Secretary of the Tunisian Ministry that supervises international trade relations and foreign investment Alaya Bettaieb declared that economic relations between Hungary and Tunisia may be significantly expanded.