The foreign minister has revealed that Hungary is donating 33 ventilators to Mongolian hospitals.
After meeting his Mongolian counterpart, Battsetseg Batmunkh, Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said Hungary has “learnt from previous waves of the coronavirus pandemic” and has ramped up its capacity to produce crucial protective equipment domestically. It is now in a position to help “friendly states”, he said at a joint press conference in Ulaanbaatar. The key to fighting the fourth wave is preparation, he added. Hungary has organized one of the fastest inoculation campaigns in the European Union and has provided healthcare facilities with all “strategic means” necessary to treat Covid patients. He praised Mongolia’s inoculation campaign, noting that 60% of the country’s adult population has already received the vaccine.
Minister Szijjarto also noted the close economic ties between Mongolia and Hungary. Hungary is one of the six EU countries to have an embassy in Ulaanbaatar, he said. Hungary’s Eximbank has set up a 60 million dollar credit line to help Hungarian-Mongolian joint ventures. Despite the “extreme difficulties” last year, trade volume between the two countries jumped by 19%. Hungarian pharma company Richter sells 70 types of pharmaceuticals in the country, and Hungarian companies are investing 57 million dollars in constructing Mongolia’s first animal vaccine factory, he said. In the past six years, over 500 Mongolian students started their studies at Hungarian universities, he added.