The programme that offers knowledge, skills and opportunity to enable participation in the digital world is to be extended to the county seat of Nógrád early this autumn, Minister of State for Infocommunication Vilmos Vályi-Nagy announced in Miskolc on 18 March 2014 on the occasion that the first successful applicants were presented with the appliances they had been awarded within the framework of the Digital Community Programme.

The Digital Community Programme has reached an important milestone: the Programme Office has processed and evaluated the applications of people resident in Miskolc.

Citizens who had submitted applications meeting both content and format requirements were notified of the positive results of the evaluation through various channels last week. The winners of the project unique to the European Union are notified from the beginning of this week on the dates when their awards can be collected. Additional documents are requested in the case of only 5% of the applications.

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The appliances and the training provided to the winners of the programme may make their everyday lives easier, e.g. by enabling them to do shopping online or make use of e-administration services, Vilmos Vályi-Nagy pointed out.

Even families with more difficult living conditions can join the digital community and thus have access to information on the World Wide Web that helps them in finding a job, in self-tuition and networking.

The government’s broadband development programme, thanks to which all Hungarian households will have access to a network of at least 30     mbit/sec by 2018, is also to help the eradication of digital illiteracy.

Through this high priority programme, people living in Miskolc can utilise the opportunities provided by the digital world and the digital community in several ways, from teleworking to learning or to extending their opportunities in everyday life, Mayor of Miskolc Ákos Kriza added. The development of the network also contributes to the improvement of public security.

In the first phase of the Digital Community Programme focused on Miskolc, more than ten thousand laptops are to be given to awardees, with a brief presentation on the operation of the appliances, by the end of June at the latest. Participants of the programme have included, among others, job seekers, mothers with small children, pensioners, students and people with reduced work capacity.

The aim of the pilot project launched in November is to contribute to creating equal chances, improving the quality of life and, by closing the development gap of the region concerned, to improving the competitiveness of the country. In order to foster these, the government is to provide 17 thousand laptops altogether to those in need living in the Borsod County seat and the Miskolc District as well as free training to people who are digitally illiterate or are at a low level of digital literacy.

(Ministry of National Development)