As Minister of State Zoltán Cséfalvay said at the conference entitled Competitive Enterprise=Competitive Economy organized by business daily Világgazdaság in Budapest, a large proportion of EU funding will be channelled to small and medium-sized enterprises in the upcoming EU fiscal period.

In the EU fiscal period 2014-2020, funds totalling 7300 billion forints will be made available for Hungary. Out of that amount, some 1125 billion forints are projected to be used for improving the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises, while 1178 billion forints are planned to be applied to improving employment and labour force mobility, Zoltán Cséfalvay said.

The Minister of State added that the Government intends to spend HUF 708.8bn on research, development and innovation, some HUF 870bn on promoting sustainable transport and HUF 830bn on cutting carbon-dioxide emission levels -- in addition to some HUF 500bn projected to be devoted to improving energy efficiency within the Hungarian economy.

The Minister of State stressed that in – according to plans of the European Commission – in the coming EU fiscal period more emphasis will be placed on refundable EU resources and real financial instruments, whereas the proportion of non-refundable resources will concurrently decrease.

Deputy State Secretary Nándor Csepreghy of the Prime Minister’s Office said that it is among the Government commitments and objectives laid down in the National Reform Programme that – in harmony with the EU 2020 Strategy – 75 percent of labour force of working-age shall have a job, 1.8 percent of GDP shall be spent on R&D and energy efficiency shall by improved by 10 percent by the end of the fiscal period. Along with these objectives, the Government also plans – in line with EU aims – to increase the share of renewable energy to 14.6 percent, to cut the number of people living in poverty by 450 thousand and improving the number of early school leavers to 10 percent, the Deputy State Secretary said.

(Ministry for National Economy)