Hungary and India Sign Agreement for Promotion of Traditional Medicines

New Delhi: In an important initiative taken by India, Republic of Hungary has signed a bilateral agreement with India for promotion and development of traditional systems of medicine. The Memorandum of Understanding was signed on behalf of India by Smt. Santosh Chowdhary, Union Minister of State for Health & Family Welfare and Mr. Zolton Banog, Minister of National Resources of Hungary in the presence of Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India and Mr. Viktor Orban, Prime Minister of Hungary, at Hyderabad House, here today.The Republic of Hungary has considerable interest in Indian traditional systems of medicine especially Ayurveda.

The main objective of this MoU is to strengthen, promote and develop cooperation in the field of traditional systems of medicine between the two countries on the basis of equality and mutual benefits. The MoU encourages and promotes cooperation to enhance the use of traditional systems of medicine, exchange of regulatory information on operational licensing to practice traditional medicine and on marketing authorization of medicines in both countries, promote the exchange of experts for training of practitioners, para-medics, scientists, teaching professionals and students in traditional systems of medicine. The signing of MoU will give boost to bilateral cooperation between the two countries in the areas of traditional medicines which will open new vistas for exploring the potential of economic, commercial and tourism development in both the countries.

Smt. Santosh Chowdhary has expressed hope that signing of such bilateral agreements, India will be able to establish the Indian systems of medicines namely Ayurveda, Unani, Yoga and Naturopathy, Siddha, Homeophathy and Sowa-Rigpa (Namchi) that will help in establishing the global recognition of India’s well established systems in the world over. It may be mentioned that India has already signed such agreements with Malaysia and Trininad and Tobago and is in the process of signing agreements with Russia, Nepal, Srilanka, Serbia and Mexico in near future.