“In September, the Ministry for Innovation and Technology will be publishing a 35-billion-forint (EUR 101 million) tender to facilitate the development of Hungarian health industry manufacturing companies”, the Ministry’s State Secretary for Economic Strategy and Regulation László György said at a press conference in Budapest on Thursday.

The State Secretary said the funding is part of a health industry development project worth a total of 85 billion forints (EUR 246 million).

Ministerial Commissioner for the Health Economy Györgyi Lengyel said the development of the health industry is strategically important, explaining that the coronavirus epidemic had also shows to what extent the security of supply is important, and that it is one of the most important public issues not only in situations of emergency, but also in everyday life.

“The administration has been working in the background since 2018, but the drawing up of a comprehensive health industry strategy has only become apparent to everybody in recent months”, she added.

“The government’s decisions are in harmony with strategic targets with relation to both the 50 billion forints  (EUR 144.7 million) in funding available at the Ministry of Finance and the 35 billion forints in funding for supporting health industry manufacturing companies that will be available in the Ministry for Innovation and Technology’s budget from September. This money will be spent on the development of Hungarian capacities to ensure the technological progress of enterprises and 21st century healthcare services, and via this the security of public health services with products that are of key importance to epidemiological protection during a state of emergency”, Ms. Lengyel said.

“We have also performed a large-sample survey among health industry companies, polling a total of 6677 enterprises that may be regarded as health industry enterprises in view of the fact that this is their main business activity, or covers at least two of their secondary activities. 73 percent of these, a total of 4896, may be regarded as functioning enterprises. We analysed the product palette, strengths and areas that require funding of these enterprises, parallel to which we also drew up a list of products that are purchased by healthcare institutions”, she stated.

“Based on this, we will be designating four funding target groups in the tender: the first funding target group includes enterprises that already possess significant production and development potential or promising project ideas now. The second group is made up of enterprises that manufacture basic materials or parts for the health industry, or which are able to rapidly switch to the production of materials used by the health industry in a state of emergency”, she continued.

“The tender is also open to enterprises in the third group, who wish to realise an investment project aimed at improving productivity, realising a technological transition, developing control management, or improving energy efficiency. The fourth target group concerns the provision of funding for the kind of research and development projects that have been encountered in the recent period, and particularly during the epidemic situation, and which represent a major innovation performance and are able to appear in some kind of product within a short time”, Ms. Lengyel told the press.

“We are yet to decide the size of project that may receive funding, and this is also dependent on the applications we receive, but our determined goal is for funding intensity to be a maximum of 50 percent”, the Ministerial Commissioner added.

(MTI/Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister)