Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's Speech at the Signing of the Document entitled "Partnership Cooperation Agreement for a Digital Hungary"

February 21, 2014 9:26 AM

Every Hungarian Household will have Broadband Internet by 2018

Good Afternoon, Ladies and Gentlemen. Your Excellency, Mr. Ambassador, Mr. Höttges, Ladies and Gentlemen.

When we signed the document I said to Mr. Höttges [CEO of Deutsche Telekom Timotheus Höttges] that now there is no going back, we will be the best, we have crossed the Rubicon. And as things stand, it is realistic, the opportunity is here at hand, for the Hungarian economy to become the European economy with the most modern telecommunications infrastructure, and as a result its most modern economy.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

You can see behind me here a slogan, a few words that explain how it became possible for Deutsche Telekom and Hungary to sign an agreement today. It says here: security, innovation, knowledge. These are some of Deutsche Telekom's objectives, but they could equally well describe the political programme for the Hungarian elections, because after all, what else do we want if not security, knowledge and innovation. There exists the required consensus on common goals for an agreement of this nature to come about. But there is something else here, Ladies and Gentlemen, that I would also like to mention. We have been negotiating with Deutsche Telekom for quite some time, and Mr. Höttges also mentioned what a long way we have come. We owe him and the directors of the company our personal gratitude for enabling us to finally enter the world of agreement. But there was something that I felt throughout the course of our negotiations, and which I would like to tell you about today. Because one may know many things about a large company like Deutsche Telekom, it has lots of money and possesses serious know-how and patents, it is highly regarded internationally, many things come to mind, but what struck me most was the fact that I was negotiating with people who are very proud of what they do. And so the first word that comes to mind when I think of Deutsche Telekom is pride. They do not simply make money and realise investments, and are not simply in the business of making profits, but they are proud of what they do and believe in the fact that the technology they invent, apply and promote does in fact move the world forwards; Germany and now Hungary, and as a result of that, the whole of Central Europe.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Mr. Höttges spoke about something that we rarely hear in Hungary, about being a "good corporate citizen". This is the expression he used in English, I believe. It is extremely important to a host country that the "good corporate citizens" who arrive here really do want to play their part. And perhaps this is also one of the reasons why we chose this as the site for the signing of the agreement, although of course the building is very beautiful in itself – we have a building that is even more beautiful, and which is called the Hungarian Parliament building, but nevertheless, that was not the site we chose for the signing of this agreement. Because Deutsche Telekom has been a committed partner of this centre for music, or rather of the initiative, and has contributed significantly to the financial maintenance and upkeep of this wonderful Hungarian cultural institution, the Budapest Music Centre, for many years, proving, as it were, what Mr. Höttges said previously, that Deutsche Telekom is a "good corporate citizen".

Ladies and Gentlemen,

And accordingly we can safely say that today's agreement is the result of a long tradition and the reinforcement of an old friendship. And now, please allow me to speak a little of the future, of what we have agreed to, exactly. Mr. Höttges is perhaps less aware of this, but when someone in Hungary mentions European Union undertakings, not everyone begins to smile. We have several issues with the European Union, but with regard to what Mr. Höttges mentioned, we are in full agreement. We have signed an agreement with the European Union with regard to the fact that the member states must realise a major programme of digitalisation, meaning in other words that every household must have a broadband internet connection by 2020. This is what Mr. Höttges was referring to. Today's agreement makes it possible, thanks to the investment we have agreed upon, for Hungary to achieve this undertaking, that every household must have access to broadband internet, by 2018, in other words much earlier than the deadline included in the agreement we have signed with the European Union. This requires development projects, Ladies and Gentlemen! This agreement also provides room for and a commitment towards realising these. We are talking about several hundreds of billions of forints here, which will be provided partly by Deutsche Telekom and partly by the Hungarian State, enabling us to also achieve this goal and realise the level of modern infrastructure we have just been talking about.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

And finally, I would like to talk about another important thing, which is important to the Hungarians. There are international companies who amaze us with their fantastic developments and services. They come here and show us what they have, give us a peek at the goods, and we are amazed and purchase them. This is also a form of cooperation. But this is not the relationship between Deutsche Telekom and Hungary. They certainly have a serious level of know-how, and they come here and show us, but then they give us room to participate, after which we continue together. This is a higher quality of cooperation. We are not Deutsche Telekom's customers, and Mr. Höttges told us this in very clear terms a little earlier, but we are participants. Back to the numbers again: Deutsche Telekon orders products and services from over 3000 small and medium-sized Hungarian enterprises. And so it supports Hungary's national economy not just directly, through operating here and creating jobs, but also through having become an integral part of the Hungarian economy. And so we can safely say, as we have heard, and this is what transferring certain service centres to Budapest is all about, that we are doing this together with Deutsche Telekom, even if this company is theirs, it is they, who after all built the company, and this global competitiveness is primarily guaranteed by the Germans, but we Hungarians also have an opportunity to do things and operate the company together with them. And accordingly we would like to thank Mr. Höttges for the decisions, in light of which Budapest has been chosen as the site for some of Deutsche Telecom's service centres, European service centres.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would also like to say a few words about the sector itself, on the apropos of Deutsche Telekom. We rarely speak about this, but we Hungarians also have much to be proud of. German pride can well be accompanied by Hungarian pride also, because the fact is that today, 12-14% of the GDP, of Hungary's total gross national product, is generated by the infocommunications and IT sector. In the light of occasional lectures on the supposed low level of development of the Hungarian economy, this is a surprising figure. And if we take into consideration that during the past year this sector has been responsible for 25% of the Hungarian economy's growth, then it is clear that it not only contributes significantly to today's gross national product, but will also play an increasingly prominent role in its further development. One must whip the horse that pulls best, as they say. That's how things work, I'm afraid. It may not be particularly fair, but the world is indeed moved forward by those who pull best, and the IT sector is pulling hard in Hungary, and so this is what we must whip, this is what we must develop and this is the area in which we must realise development projects; we must become even stronger at what we are good at already.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

There is also no debate among those involved in analysing the global economy today with regard to the fact that Central Europe is looking forward to a prolonged period of growth. We are all aware of the difficulties and idiosyncrasies of the European economy. There is broad consensus with regard to the fact that the efforts with which the countries of Central Europe from the Baltic Sea to the Adriatic have specifically and successfully linked their own economies to the German economy have by now resulted in the fact that over the next ten to fifteen years the centre and engine of economic growth within the European Union will be Central Europe. For this to be the case we need a successful German economy and we need a successful Central European region. I signed today's agreement in the hope that everyone will do their part and we can count on having a successful Germany and a successful Central European region in the upcoming years.

Thank you once again to CEO Timotheus Höttges and CEO [of Magyar Telekon] Christopher Mattheisen for having made possible the signing of this agreement. Thank you for your kind attention.