Funds with predetermined budgets will be allocated from EU funding within an independent operative programme for regional and urban development and these will be made available to counties and cities with county rights to spend on their own economic development projects, Minister of State for Economic Strategy and Parliamentary Affairs Zoltán Cséfalvay said in Nagykanizsa.

At the conference entitled The future of cross-border economic relations within the European Union, Zoltán Cséfalvay mentioned among the Government’s plans for the upcoming EU fiscal period of 2014-2020 that 60 percent of the total amount of available structural and cohesion funding will be spent directly on economic development. Out of the total amount of HUF 6775bn expected within these eight years, funds with predetermined budgets – depending on the level of development of a region or settlement -- will be earmarked for the implementation of local economic development projects.

He added that the “planning of the reasonable application” of resources from these two funds is already underway and proposals will soon be published for a broad social debate. He called it a crucial step in itself that instead of the former 16 percent, 60 percent of available funds will be spent on shoring up the economy in future, including among others, supporting employment, R&D, innovation and information technology as well as both local and regional economic development.

As the Minister of State explained, in the European Union, where the crisis has been taking its toll for five years now, uncertainty prevails regarding economic policies, as state-level stimulus measures and various fiscal austerity measures that contradict these had also been experimented with. Meantime, Hungary’s economic policy pursued a three-directional course: financial stabilization, parallel pro-competitiveness reforms and an overhaul of the central and local public administration systems were all carried out.

Now that measures aimed at enhancing the competitiveness of the entire country have been implemented – which was not an easy task for either households or enterprises – “practical steps will be made in the field of industrial policy”, Zoltán Cséfalvay said. At the conference organized by the city’s local government for Croatian and Hungarian business people and the press conference following it, the Minister of State also said that economic opportunities will be even more optimally exploitable as Nagykanizsa borders Croatia and the country will join the European Union as of the beginning of July. Recently, Hungary has been the fourth largest capital investor in Croatia and Croatia has been the number one destination for Hungarian working capital. In addition, despite the recession, external trade has been steadily expanding in the past couple of years.

External Economy Coordinator at the Foreign Ministry Zsolt Becsey underlined that the bulk of the exports of Hungarian-owned enterprises head to neighbouring countries. Among these, until recently Croatia has been the smallest export market, but it is still larger than China’s and it constitutes about half the volume of exports to Russia or the United States.

In his words, Croatia’s accession may have a sizable economic stimulating effect primarily on Hungarian enterprises in the next four-five years, and – thanks to their close proximity -- Nagykanizsa and Southwest-Transdanubia may gain the largest share of expansion.

President of the International Paneuropean Union and Foreign Ministry Advisor István Bethlen said at the press conference that the wider Hungarian public still knows little of the “ailing” European Union, whose most successful field, however, had been regional cooperation which caused a significant economic upswing for regions close to borders. The proximity of Slovenia and Croatia renders the geographic situation of Nagykanizsa ideal, but the city “must create a direct gateway” to the Adriatic region as well.

In his opinion, access to the sea is crucial from the aspect of agricultural and regional development and for establishing relations with Arab countries. The port formerly known as Fiume (Rijeka) may regain its significance once again for not only Croatia but also for Hungary.

Mayor of Nagykanizsa Péter Cseresnyés said that the city’s development will be realized within the framework of a regional development project, and along with neighbouring settlements that would naturally also include the engagement of cities across the border. Therefore, it is of vital importance that local resources for development purposes are evaluated independently from Budapest or Zagreb.

(Ministry for National Economy)