In recent years, the Government has facilitated the competitiveness of Hungarian enterprises through its economic policy and regulatory overhaul, Minister for National Economy Mihály Varga said at a conference organized by business daily Világgazdaság.
The Government has supported the development of companies by employment incentives, the cutting of red tape, a new tax regime and easing access to development funds, he added. Speaking of economic policy reforms, the Minister stressed that after 2010 the Cabinet had to implement structural reforms which have fundamentally transformed the opportunities of the Hungarian economy. “Now we can state with certainty that the economy’s vulnerability to external shocks has been reduced, general government debt has been cut and the fiscal deficit has been kept below 3 percent of GDP for several years.”
Mihály Varga called it a major achievement that Hungarian SMEs have successfully participated in this process, their share of total economic output and exports has increased. In light of statistical data it can be concluded that in 2014 the performance of the SME sector has improved in the majority of indicators, in comparison to prior years.
In the 2014-2020 programming period, HUF 466bn are to be allocated for the development of SMEs. Within the Economic Development and Innovation Operative Programme -- supervised by the Ministry for National Economy – 25 calls for expression of interest have been published for total funding of HUF 651bn. These are to be followed by 27 more calls until the end of the year. With these measures the Government aims to bolster the creditworthiness of small and medium-sized enterprises.
(Ministry for National Economy)
