"Hungary should not be afraid of learning from new experiences" Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in his speech at the Friends of Hungary Conference 2014 in Budapest on Monday at the presidential Sándor Palace.
Hungary’s political elite should look beyond Europe and learn from such economies as the US or Japan, the Prime Minister said at the event attended by doctors, engineers, researchers, artists, professors, managers, businesspeople and diplomats from all over the world.
The global economy will continue to look for new solutions in the next few years, and Hungary should be open and "view global developments with an eagerness to learn," he stressed.
Concerning the Japanese economy, Prime Minister Orbán said that the country's revolutionary move to double the amount of cash in circulation was exemplary. He mentioned similar measures applied in the United States and urged participants to promote such foreign examples in Hungary. "Free thinking nowadays is not only an option but an obligation," he insisted.
The Hungarian Prime Minister argued that Hungarian society had an elemental demand for internally organised crisis management rather than assistance from abroad. He voiced satisfaction over the economy, stating that the Government had put the economy back on the path of growth and over 4 million people now had jobs. He highlighted that the Government aimed to boost the employment rate to over 70%, similar to the US level.
Prime Minister Orbán voiced the conviction that a new consensus had taken shape between society and the political elite, based on the understanding that people of working age should live on wages rather than on benefits. Also, the Government should help families in all reasonable ways and ethnic Hungarians abroad are full members of the nation.
President János Áder, who also spoke at the event, emphasised that love and respect for Hungary binds together participants of the conference. Head of the Friends of Hungary Foundation board Szilveszter E Vizi said no matter where life has taken the participants, they have stayed Hungarian and this feeling provides energy to act in the interests of the country, its people and for the Hungarian nation all over the world. He cited Nobel laureate chemist György Oláh, economist Sándor Lámfalussy and opera singer Éva Marton as examples.
The Friends of Hungary Foundation's mission is to provide up-to-date objective information about Hungary and to raise awareness about the outstanding social, cultural, economic and scientific activities of Hungarians.
(Prime Minister’s Office)
