“Based on the latest figures, it may be stated that the measures introduced to support the construction industry are successful. The government’s target is to support the sustainable development of the construction industry based on modern technology, in the interests of enabling this determining sector of Hungarian industry to successfully fulfil the increasing volume of orders”, Parliamentary State Secretary Tamás Schanda from the Ministry for Innovation and Technology said in assessment of the latest data published by the Central Statistical Office (KSH).

Based on the statistics, in September the volume of construction industry production increased by 17.8% compared to the similar period last year. Based on the seasonally and workday effect adjusted index, this growth was 5.2%. 18.7% more buildings and 17.2% more other constructions were built compared to last year’ levels. With relation to buildings, growth was the result of the construction of housing, cultural and industrial buildings, while road and railway construction gave rise to the highest growth in the case of other constructions. Somewhat more that 10 thousand homes were put into commission during the first three quarters of 2019. In addition, the increase in the number of new construction permits and simple disclosures also continued during the first three quarters of the year, totalling almost 28 thousand, which represents a year-on-year increase of 2.7%.

Mr. Schanda highlighted the fact that some 25 trillion forints (EUR 74.75 billion) in construction industry investment will be realised in Hungary by 2023. These investments are directly and indirectly contributing to improving the quality of life of the Hungarian people, in view of the fact that the goal is for Hungary to be among the top five most liveable countries in the European Union.

The Hungarian sector is also among the front runners within the European Union. In September, the construction industry grew to the greatest extent in Hungary from among the countries of the Visegrád Group (V4), and our indices are also strong in pan-European comparison: over the past ten years, the performance of the sector has increased by an average of 7% in the member states of the European Union, while in Hungary this figure is 75.5%.

The Ministry for Innovation and Technology has provided billions of forints in funding towards the modernisation of construction industry businesses in the recent period. “The increase in the competitiveness of small and medium-sized business is facilitated if they have access to suitable resources to enable the application of modern technologies and the acquisition of equipment with which their work processes can be simplified, and their production capacities increased. The expectation is for construction industry activities to be more calculable, which could clearly contribute to the more efficient performance of work. The provision of funding for technological modernisation is also capable of partly balancing our the sector’s lack of capacity”, the State Secretary explained, adding: “The Ministry for Innovation and Technology has provided 28 billion forints (EUR 83.7 million) in funding towards this goal over the past two years”.

(MTI)