Speech of Viktor Orbán at the ‘Budapest Conference on Cyber Space’.

Good morning, Ladies and Gentlemen.

I would not like to deprive you of the beauty of listening to the Hungarian language, so I will address you in Hungarian. It is my honour to greet Mr President, Ms High Commissioner, Mr Foreign Minister and the representatives of the Polish, Finnish and the South-Korean governments. I hope you will have a nice time here, in Budapest, and you will manage to establish contacts and maybe even build new friendships. Although there is a Hungarian joke according to which you should treat Hungarians with care, for if you have a Hungarian friend, you do not need an enemy. Which is why this is a good bargain, by one, get two.

Dear Guests,

You are the guests of a country where optimism and trust, and, as the above black joke also showed, self-irony developed under communism, cannot be broken even by an economic crisis such as the one of our days. Finally here we are at a conference, an international consultation, which is not addressing the crisis nor the problems of the Euro-Zone, nor the decreasing influence of Europe in the world economy, but something else: it is addressing the future and a fundamentally new issue of the future.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The importance of our topic today is also highlighted by the fact that the participants of the Budapest Conference include high representatives of governments as well as of science and of business. I recall that when our Foreign Minister first told me that Hungary was going to organise this conference, my question was:  „why?” He gave me several complex reasons as to why this topic is important also for the future but he had one convincing argument, which enlisted every member of the Hungarian government behind the support of this conference. The Foreign Minister said that we Hungarians are freedom-loving people and that ever since 1956 the World knows this and knows how important freedom is to us, Hungarians in all forms. We Hungarians treasure also freedom embodied in virtual space consisting of computers and cables in the cyberspace. Here, people can obtain very quickly and easily all relevant news and information, they can express their opinions freely, and can profit from the business opportunities offered by this virtual space. This freedom is a very important thing for us, Hungarians. Do not forget that we are a country where freedom could only exist internally and could have no external expression for 40 years. Freedom and privacy for Hungarians thus are two intrinsically linked concepts. In reality, Ladies and Gentlemen, this is confronted with the fact that just in 2012, the personal data of some 300 million users have been abused. Even today, there is a significant public underestimation of this threat, too few users are mindful of the fact that they can become crime victims in the cyberspace any day, just like having their personal documents stolen on the streets. We have to be capable of defending our citizens from this most realistic threat.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is quite clear that both as regards cyber freedom, both as regard the ensuring of this freedom, we are at the beginning of a defining international process. The Budapest Conference can be a most important moment in this process, as was the London Conference last year, for which it is our special honour to welcome and thank Mr. Foreign Minister to have come to Budapest, and as shall be next year’s follow-up conference in South-Korea, which is why we particularly appreciate the presence of the representative of the South-Korean government.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The issues brought up by cyberspace and the world created by the IT sector is becoming increasingly relevant for all. They define international trade and communication, the functioning of states and as such, it brings with itself clear dangers, too. We are addressing an issue which, as we all know, is going to be even further valued in the future as well. For us Hungarians too the IT sector offers limitless opportunities to develop our economy. So it is not exclusively the particular international weight of the theme for which it is important that Budapest can host this conference, but also for its national relevance. I am saying this to our international guests particularly: that Hungarians have always been in the forefront of the development of the IT sector. I could also say that Hungarian innovators have been active at every key-stage of the development of informatics and communication technology. You must have heard of the inventor of the speaking machine, Farkas Kempelen, of the name of János Neumann, or of the creator of „BASIC”, the computer language, János Kemény. Thanks to this strong tradition, those 23 different Hungarian IT projects that are on show, here at the conference, proves that this sector in Hungary has a serious past and a most promising future.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We know that the IT sector can be rather capital intensive, yet experience also proves that in this field even capital-needy countries can produce serious successes, such as our country. This is most probably due to the fact that cyber world is based not only on data but primarily on brainwork. This is why capital-needy countries can offer important contribution with their innovative initiatives to the cyberspace and to the IT sector development.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As Prime Minister, it is my particular responsibility to keep in mind that, just as in the case of the majority of scientific research fundamentally influencing the life of humanity, such as nuclear energy or genetics, it is not only new opportunities that are increasingly valued in these, but also in every occasion, the threats emanating from their use. I believe all of you here are fully aware of these newer and newer threats. Just crime committed on the internet exceeded the global income of drug trade. A daily one-million user fall victim of cybercrime. The Hungarian Government believes that all countries of the world have to make a special effort to create the security of this space and to prepare for the fight against cyber terrorism. For it is today unfortunately not unimaginable for someone with relatively inexpensive investment and a simple machine to lounge an attack against the functioning of a State.  We can all feel that we are standing on the borderlines of a new era. It may be difficult to imagine what a cyber-war shall look like, what victims it will create, what battles and stakes will define it, but the very possibility of such a war highlights our efforts to create security in this field. The question of IT security raises first and foremost the question of how it is possible to regulate a virtual space with no real borders. Cyberspace is in reality a world without walls, in which we still have to provide the defence of the private sphere of personal data, of information of our private lives as well as of information relevant to national security.

For a serious government, people’s freedom and security is equally important. The question to us, Hungarians is such: how can we, Hungarians contribute to these? Let me remind you of the 2001 Budapest Convention, which brought to life an international document with the participation of 45 governments, creating so far the widest platform in cyber security. The Budapest Convention on Cybercrime is the only international legal document which could raise legal harmonisation against cybercrime to an international level. We Hungarians are also proud of the fact that in the past two years we undertook a massive and intensive law-making process, quite successful in international context. The new Constitution also treats the defence of personal and public data with a special emphasize.  We have passed the law on defence of classified data, the law on national data protection, and on right to information freedom. I would like to ensure you of the Hungarian Government’s goal to establish and develop an international cooperation on the basis of well-defined instruments for creating cyber security. Hungary can use its particular capital, innovative efforts and governmental will to contribute to a more efficient management of this question.

It is in this spirit that I wish you a most successful conference.

Thank you for your attention.

(orbanviktor.hu)