The Great Wall Chinese-Hungarian Friendship Awards went to three recipients at a special ceremony in Parliament here on Monday.
The awards went to Bin Yunsong, CEO of the Hungarian branch of Chinese electronics giant Huawei, the Hungarian-Chinese Dual Language School, and the International Chan Wu Federation, a body that unites Zen Buddhism and martial arts.
Dignitaries attending included Peter Szijjarto, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, MP Lajos Olah who heads the Great Wall Hungarian-Chinese Friendship Association, and China's Ambassador to Hungary Xiao Qian.
Accepting the award, Bin said he considered promotion of business relations between the two countries to be a personal calling.
Addressing the gathering for the Hungarian-Chinese Dual Language School, its principal Zsuzsanna Erdelyi said the award recognized the efforts the school put into nurturing bilateral relations.
Chan Wu Federation's chief Wang Deqing pointed to the many Nobel Prize winners who had been born in Hungary and the many important inventions that had come from the minds of Hungarians. He called Hungary "a wise country, a place where one can rest and think."
For his part, Szijjarto focused on overall Hungarian-Chinese relations, saying that on the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations, relations had never been as good and as successful as they currently were.
He called cooperation with China based on reliability and mutual advantages a vital pillar of Hungary's strategy of opening to the East.
Last year, the Great Wall Hungarian-Chinese Friendship Association and 11 other organizations established the Chinese-Hungarian Friendship Awards to acknowledge people who have contributed significantly to strengthening Chinese-Hungarian relations.