The multi-month upward trend of the volume of Hungary’s foreign trade continued in 2014: in the first month of the year, exports and imports increased by 6.1 percent and 3.6 percent, respectively, while foreign trade surplus is up by EUR 209 million, to EUR 482 million, in comparison to January 2013. Industrial output growth and the significant increase of industrial export orders have already augured positive data.
Under the pilot project “From the street to work”, a briquetting plant and a floriculture greenhouse designed to provide work for homeless people was opened in District IX of Budapest.
The crisis in Ukraine is likely to speed up the implementation of plans by the European Union to establish energy security, Enikő Győri, Minister of State for EU Affairs, declared in London on Monday.
In the past three and a half years the Government has fundamentally changed the employment policy with relation to disabled people. The currently accredited organisations employ 30,500 disabled people and a further 22,655 persons have been hired by private companies thanks to the rehabilitation card, which means lower employer contributions for companies, Minister of State for Social and Family Affairs Miklós Soltész said on Tuesday at the inauguration of a new workplace employing disabled people in the southwest Hungarian town of Csurgó.
A home for the elderly in the southwest Hungarian village of Kőkút has received a solar energy system thanks to a 22 million forint (EUR 72,000) state subsidy. Minister of State for Social and Family Affairs Miklós Soltész said at the inauguration that Government grants had made possible the renovation of several homes for the elderly in Somogy County. He said these investments contribute to offering a quality life for elderly people in need of support. The home received 88 solar panels.
The Hungarian election system is fair and legitimate and will be suitable for more than eight million voters to „express their opinion” on Sunday, Minister of State heading the Prime Minister’s Office János Lázár said at a press briefing on Tuesday.
The Hungarian government demands that Hungarian citizen Előd Tóásó, who has been in pre-trial detention in Bolivia since 2009, should be released, Zsolt Németh, MFA State Secretary declared on Monday.
The Government has raised the total allocation for the programme supporting the comprehensive reconstruction of certain sections of 4-5 digit roads to HUF 109 billion. According to an estimation based on earlier cost data, the extra funds will finance the reconstruction of some 270 km by the public road management company, Minister of National Development Zsuzsa Németh announced in Szeged on 1 April, 2014.
Vodafone will further expand its regional customer service centre in Miskolc over the next one and a half years, CEO of Vodafone Hungary Diego Massidda announced on Tuesday. State Secretary for Foreign Affairs and External Economic Relations Péter Szijjártó was present at the announcement and noted that Vodafone’s expansion is further evidence of Hungary’s growing competitiveness.
A conference on genocide prevention was held in Brussels on March 31 – April 1, on the twentieth anniversary of the genocide in Ruanda. Foreign Minister János Martonyi declared at the conference that the international community, despite the efforts made over the past 20 years, was still unable to avert the commitment of crimes against humanity and other atrocities.