The automotive industry is one of the most important driver sectors in Hungary, and strengthening the electromobility segment within the sector is particularly important as it is one of the pledges of the Hungarian economy’s competitiveness, the Parliamentary State Secretary of the Ministry for Innovation and Technology said on Saturday in Budapest.

At the award ceremony of the creative call for proposals related to this year’s topic of European Mobility Week ‘Walk with us!’, Tamás Schanda said the Jedlik Ányos Plan, too, serves that purpose, as part of which they funded the installation of dozens of electric charging stations from an allocation of half a billion forints. The government also offers a contribution to the purchase of electric vehicles, for the purposes of which it has already provided HUF 400 million.

He highlighted that the Electromobility Week and the Car-Free Day drew attention to the need for a more conscious attitude regarding the means and methods of transport one chooses; the government sponsored the programmes of the series of events with HUF 180 million.

According to the State Secretary, for children travelling is a joyous event, while adults look upon it as a burden due to traffic jams and crowded public transport.

However, the more than one thousand inventive, thought-provoking and creative works submitted in response to the call for proposals helped to re-discover the interesting sides of transport, he added.

At a press conference, organisers highlighted that the Ministry for Innovation and Technology, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Human Capacities invited a joint call for creative proposals for nursery school, elementary school and secondary school pupils as well as for adults for the popularisation of walking and environmentally-friendly transport modes. Contestants were allowed to submit drawings, photos and creative works.

A panel of experts selected the best of the submitted proposals. Thanks to the sponsorship of the Ministry for Innovation and Technology, authors of the submitted works received scooters and bicycles to the value of HUF 3.5 million, while from the sponsorship of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Human Capacities contestants were given book vouchers to the value of HUF 1 million and HUF 300,000, respectively.

(MTI)