A light aircraft assembly plant is set for Morogoro by investors from Hungary, the government has confirmed.

January Makamba, the Foreign Affairs and East Africa Cooperation minister, made this observation after talks with the visiting Hungarian foreign minister Peter Szijjártó, at the end of his two day working visit in the country.

He told journalists in Dar es Salaam yesterday that the decision to build the plant in Tanzania illustrates close ties existing between Tanzania and Hungary, and a conducive business environment existing at present.

The two governments have signed agreements for water sector cooperation as Hungary is far ahead in water management technology, “so we have agreed to collaborate in the area for us to update technology in the sector,” he said.  

An education sector cooperation accord was signed, furthering a tradition where for many years, Hungary has been providing opportunities for further studies with fully paid scholarships, he stated.

“So we have discussed increasing the number of scholarship beneficiaries,” he said, hinting at pushing for more collaborations in tourism, with plans to sign an agreement to facilitate direct flights from Hungary to Tanzania.

“Tanzania has a lot of attractions and Hungary is a good source of tourists for our country,” he said, pointing at higher flows of tourists from that country in the past year.

This is going to be enhanced with direct flights, he said, projecting greater trade interactions and strengthened private collaboration, strengthening cooperation between the Tanzania Centre for Foreign Relations (CFR) and the Hungary counterpart institution.

This will enable diplomats to conduct regular visits to exchange experience, he said, while in his remarks, the visiting minister said Hungary was working to intensify relations with Tanzania, existing for many years.

Hungary will at any time reopen its embassy in Tanzania, closed in the 1990s after the collapse of the old Soviet Union and its eastern bloc allies taking divergent paths.