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Hungary offers Laos $160 million aid loan

The tied aid loan will cover food safety, water management and information technology. Hungarian companies will also be able to work on projects within those areas

Hungary has agreed to support Laos with a generous 160 million USD aid loan, it has been revealed.

Péter Szijjártó, minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said the loan is “the largest such scheme undertaken by Hungary so far", following talks with his counterpart in the Asian country earlier this week.

According to MTI, the tied aid loan will cover food safety, water management and information technology.

Under the scheme, Hungarian companies will be able to build slaughterhouses and processing plants in Laos, participate in the modernization of the sewage network in Vientiane, install water supply systems for industrial parks and get involved in a project to introduce electronic identification cards.

Minister Szijjártó said that similar schemes focused on farming and water supplies implemented in 2009 and 2016 were successful.

The minister added that another important avenue of co-operation is education and Hungary will offer scholarships to 50 Laotian university students from September.