Jane Lai

    HUNGARY was looking forward to more high-tech cooperation with China, a ministerial forum held on the opening day of the China Hi-Tech Fair (CHTF) was told yesterday.

    China’s high-tech companies, including Shenzhen-based ZTE and Huawei, have already recruited hundreds of high-tech professionals in Hungary to expand their overseas markets, said Geza Vass, director general of Hungary’s Department of Bilateral Relations.

    A group of Chinese high-tech enterprises were planning to work together with local talent in Hungary to produce more innovations.

    “To enhance our high-tech cooperation, we are also opening a Hungarian Commercial Office in Shenzhen in 2011,” Vass said.

    Hungary’s information and communication technologies (ICT) sector represents one-fifth of the country’s exports, the third-highest in the EU, while the percentage of people employed with ICT user skills exceeds the EU average, Vass said.

    Further high-tech cooperation between China and Hungary would enable both countries to benefit, he said.

    In Hungary’s case, large international companies are clustered around universities to enhance cooperation between academia and business, and the Hungarian Government provides incentives for large investment projects, Vass said.

    Sharon Kedmi, director general of Ministry of Industry of Israel, Tran Tuan Anh, deputy minister of Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade, and Ngy Chanphal, secretary of Cambodia’s Ministry of Interior, agreed at the forum that countries could benefit from the high-tech experience of one another.