The Visegrád Group has signed a memorandum of understanding on innovation cooperation with Israel in Jerusalem, it has been announced.
According to MTI, Hungary’s foreign ministry state secretary also discussed bilateral relations with Israeli officials during the trip.
Levente Magyar said the MoU signed today will be applicable to all areas of V4-Israeli cooperation that the two sides have an interest in developing.
The state secretary highlighted innovation in agriculture as the field he believed showed the most promise. “Hungary and Israel face similar challenges in agriculture, mainly because of climate change and the increasingly hot summers,” Magyar said. “The solutions to these can only be found through strategic planning.”
Magyar noted Israel’s world-renowned drip irrigation system and greenhouse technologies, saying they could be viable solutions for Hungary.
“Another reason why this is so important is because agriculture is one of Hungary’s strategic sectors in which it will be important to increase and preserve our value added over the coming decades,” the state secretary said. “To do so, we need just the kind of intensive technologies that Israel has.”
The state secretary revealed that Hungary will also put together a bilateral work plan, outlining specific areas of possible cooperation. He mentioned automation technologies currently being worked on by Israel as an example that could offer a solution to Hungary’s labor shortage.