Jakarta. Vice President Jusuf Kalla held a meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at Kempinski Hotel, Jakarta, today (1/2).

In the meeting, PM Orbán told the Vice President his courtesy call to President Joko Widodo previously on that day. They both, he said, among others talked about possible cooperation in energy, water management, urban city management, and state sovereignty.

“To Hungaria, sovereignty is highly a sensitive and important issue. This is the issue that has moved the country to run its project development in governance and public services by itself,” said Mr Orbán, adding that Hungaria has developed its own IT based system and thus does not rely on other countries such as the United States and Germany any longer.

Both leaders also discussed issues of national security and politics in their countries.

Hungaria that is located strategically in the East Europe, the Prime Minister said, with its relatively small number of population has to develop its own system to attract and hold cooperation with larger countries such as Russia, Germany, Turkey, the United States, and China.

Different from Hungaria, Mr Kalla in reply said, Indonesia which is an archipelagic state with about 260 million people living in many of its islands has been a challenge for the government to optimize its potentials.

“We need to build a good transportation system that will connect our islands and balance the development in the western and eastern part of the country,” he said, adding that industrial sector has rapidly developed in the western regions, but slowly in the eastern part.

Another interesting sector for Hungaria, PM Orbán said, is agriculture.

“We are keen on joining cooperation with Indonesia in transfer of technology in food and agriculture,” he said.

The prime minister also asked Mr Kalla to introduce Hungarian business delegates coming together with him to Indonesian business players to seek possible cooperation in business and investment.

“We wish Hungaria would be a part of doing business in Indonesia,” he said.

Also attending the meeting were the Hungarian National Trading House CEO Zsanett Ducsai Oláh and President of the Hungarian Chambers of Commerce and Industry Laslo Parragh, Indonesian Ambassador to Hungaria Wening Esthyprobo, Indonesian Trade Minister Thomas Lembong, Head of Vice President’s Secretariat Mohammad Oemar, and the Vice President’s expert staff Sofyan Wananadi and Shinta Kamdani.