Ahead of his visit to Baku next week to attend a joint economic committee meeting, Hungarian State Secretary for Foreign Affairs and External Economic Relations Péter Szijjártó told Hungarian news agency MTI that a Hungarian faculty will be opened at Baku's University of Foreign Languages this year. Additionally, eleven Hungarian universities will be added to the list of higher education institutions at which Azeri state scholarships are offered.

In line with an agreement signed in Budapest in October 2012, 200 Hungarian and 200 Azeri students will get a chance to study in each other's countries, he added. The State Secretary also noted that representatives of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation had visited Budapest and decided to fund the expansion of the László Batthyány Institute for Blind Children, the foundation stone of which was laid on 16 January this year.

"Efficient visa issue regulations are vital to successful economic relations," Péter Szijjártó said. The Hungarian embassy in Baku has been processing visa applications since June 2011, and 656 Schengen visa applications and 20 resident permits were processed during the second half of that year. In the following year, some 1054 visa applications were processed and since the launch of the Budapest-Baku airline route in 2013, a total of 3,500 visas were issued.

"Tourism is a very successful area of relations between the two countries," Mr. Szijjártó said. In addition to Budapest and health spas, Azeri visitors have also expressed special interest in Lake Balaton for the summer, he added.

(Prime Minister’s Office)