The government is building a new economic model, Prime Minister Orbán said at a meeting with leaders of the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MKIK). The meeting is part of a series of consultations with key allies of the ruling party.

The Prime Minister underlined the fact that Hungarian economic methods are part of the European economic toolkit and mentioned as examples the bank levy, the crisis tax, the restructuring of the 3-pillar pension system and the transaction tax. He added that the job protection action plan would soon appear in other countries as well.

One of the components of the new economic model would be the endeavour that 50 percent of the banks in Hungary should be Hungarian-owned – a pioneering example in Central Europe, he said. Among the other components, he mentioned the new tax system that supports labour and families, tax cuts to promote employment, the generation of budget revenues from taxes on consumption rather than from taxes on labour, eliminating systems that add to public debt, reforming the state pension system and welfare services, relaunching industrialization as well as restructuring the farming sector. He pointed out that a great debate would probably take place during the following months on this latter issue due to the new Land Act. The new model also seeks to forge trading paths to the east and novel ways to make use of European Union funds, Orbán said. On this latter issue he added that a commission had been set up to elaborate a new system of EU fund use.

The Prime Minister said he expected great pressure against the government's recently announced job protection plan, but added he was adamant to carry the programme to completion since it is part and parcel of the government’s philosophy. Hungarians need to be convinced that working is better than being unemployed, but it takes new jobs to demonstrate that employment yields higher incomes than benefits. If the government's employment protection programme is successful, current labour-related tax relief worth 300 billion forints (EUR 1bn) next year could be increased to up to 500 billion forints from 2014, Orbán insisted.

At the end of his speech, the Prime Minister expressed his gratitude to the members of the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, to left-wing entrepreneurs who, he said, had not used the past two years to riot, as well as to those corporations that had not withdrawn their money from the economy as a reaction to the crisis.

(Prime Minister’s Office)