The Ministry of National Development has been developing the long-term plan documents concerning the fields of information and communication, energy and development policies supported by the New Széchenyi Plan. The project aimed at the creation of impact assessments and strategies for the period 2014-2020, which has a total budget of HUF 175 million, began in March of 2013 and will end in September 2013.
The amount of capital investments flowing into Hungary is proof that the Government had made the right decision when it aimed to make Hungary the production centre of Europe, State Secretary for Foreign Affairs and External Economic Relations Péter Szijjártó, said after holding talks at the Swedish embassy in Budapest.
The Táncsics Prison in the Buda Castle district is expected to be returned to the Hungarian state next spring, once the Budapest embassy of the United States moves into its new building, where a topping out ceremony was held on Thursday.
At a conference entitled „National interest in focus – The Hungarian model in a changing Europe”, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán evaluated the performance of the Hungarian Government over the past three years and called the Hungarian economy one of the most promising in Europe.
The investment climate and opportunities for foreign businesses were among the main issues the Hungarian Foreign Ministry's Deputy State Secretary discussed in Paris on Thursday.
Over the past couple of months, several favourable processes emerged within the Hungarian economy: according to GDP data published two weeks ago, Hungary’s quarter-on-quarter output increased by 0.7 percent, the third best figure in the EU. Positive changes are also anticipated for the future, as major economic indicators show that the expectations of domestic economic stakeholders have been turning optimistic: the latest reading of the economic sentiment indicator of the Hungarian Development Bank – due mainly to an improvement regarding companies’ future investment plans – jumped to a two-year high, the Purchasing Managers Index of the Hungarian Association of Logistics, Purchasing and Inventory Management (HALPIM) signals expansion of the manufacturing sector and the GKI-Erste indicator points to rebounding business and consumer sentiment.
Foreign Minister János Martonyi received Lamberto Zannier, the Secretary General of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on May 29, on the sidelines of the international conference hosted by the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in cooperation with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and the International Centre for Democratic Transition.
Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs at the Ministry of Public Administration and Justice, Bence Rétvári, has said that in Hungary over the past three years the Government has always taken action to combat manifestations of anti-Semitism, and has initiated several measures to this end. Mr. Rétvári was speaking in Jerusalem at a conference on anti-Semitism.
Zoltán Schváb, Deputy Minister of State for Transport, discussed current transport safety conditions in Hungary and its vision at the PIN Talk conference of the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) held on 29 May 2013 in Budapest. He noted that according to preliminary statistical data on the previous year, road accidents involving personal injury decreased by over 15 per cent and the number of accident deaths declined by over 52 per cent as compared to 2001.
The European Commission has announced its proposal to abrogate the excessive deficit procedure against Hungary.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Vice Chairman & CEO of Hankook Tire Seung-Hwa Suh held negotiations in the Parliament.
Terrorism is one of our biggest security policy challenges, but preventing radicalism is as important as fighting terrorism, Minister of Foreign Affairs János Martonyi said on 29 May 2013.
According to the flash report of the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH) published earlier this morning, the number of those in employment continued to increase compared to the corresponding period of the previous year.
On 28 May, ministers of Member States in charge of international development cooperation endorsed the EU’s position for the post-2015 development goals and agenda that will be the next generation of the Millennium Development Goals. Deputy State Secretary for Global Affairs Szabolcs Takács gave an update on Hungary’s contribution to the preparatory negotiations underway in New York, within the framework of the United Nations.
Zoltán Balog, Minister of Human Resources, Hungary, was presented with the third highest ranked German Order of Merit, the Grand Merit Cross with Star and Sash (Großes Verdienstkreuz mit Stern und Schulterband) by Dr. Matei I. Hoffmann, Ambassador to Hungary of the Federal Republic of Germany.
State Secretary for Foreign Affairs and External Economic Relations Péter Szijjártó held talks with the premier and economy minister of Macedonia on Monday.
In a short speech in Parliament, the Prime Minister noted that he has high hopes with regard to Hungary exiting the Excessive Deficit Procedure this quarter.
Individual investment tranches of the Széchenyi Capital Investment Fund may rise to EUR 750,000.
Last year, the amount of foreign direct investments totalled EUR 10.462bn in Hungary, which exceeds the previous year’s figure by EUR 6.7bn and which is the largest amount ever recorded. The amount of outbound FDI by Hungarian enterprises in 2012 was EUR 8.210bn, EUR 5bn above the level registered one year earlier.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán declared in the Protestant Great Church of Debrecen that the Hungarian Government is providing HUF ten billion for the reconstruction of the Protestant College and schools of Debrecen leading up to 2017, the 500th anniversary of the birth of Protestantism. The Government is convinced that this support is not simply the honouring of our past but also serves the Calvinism and Hungarian peoples of the future, he added.
Hungary will join Eurotransplant, the international organisation responsible for coordinating organ transplants in its member countries, as a full member on July 1, under an agreement signed in Budapest on Monday.
Integration of the Roma is hopeless without the active participation of the minority, Minister of Human Resources Zoltán Balog stated at the seminar entitled “The situation of Roma in Europe – Finnish and Hungarian Experiences, European Answers”, with the participation of Ambassador of Finland Pasi Tuominen, Finnish MP Pekka Haavisto, Head of the Finnish Education Agency Aulis Pitkälä, and President Henna Huttu and CEO Tino Varjola from the Fintiko Romano Forum.
Foreign Minister János Martonyi attended the commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of the Organisation of African Unity, in Budapest on 24 May. The regional organisation of the African continent has been called the African Union since 2002.
Two Kiskunhegyes families with several children received the 99,999th and one-hundred thousandth sack of seed potatoes on Saturday, within the framework of the Ministry of Rural Development's Subsistence Farming Programme. The 30kg sacks of potatoes were presented to the middle-aged couples, who live in difficult social circumstances, by the head of the Ministry, Sándor Fazekas.
The Hungarian Group of the European Parliament's People's Party held a conference entitled "What has the Government Done for Women, Families and Children" on 24 May 2013, within the framework of the Free Europe Debate series. The goal of the Conference was to review the Government's family policies and the results achieved.