“Thanks to the strengthening of the economy and increasing workforce demand on the part of the private sector, the most important challenge to competiveness today has become assuring a suitably trained workforce”, Minister of National Economy Mihály Varga said following the second session of the National Competitiveness Council. New measures to promote the employment of women, young people and pensioners could lead to hundreds of thousands of people returning to the job market, the Minister told reporters.

“High inactivity, which was one of the major structural problems burdening the welfare supply system and the room for manoeuvre of economic policy in the recent years following the overhaul of Hungary’ economic system, seems to have been solved thanks to the Government’s measures”, Mr. Varga said, highlighting the fact that over the space of 7 years the number of people in employment in Hungary had increased by 700 thousand to 4.4 million. “In contrast to the period before 2010, the greatest challenge today is no longer job creation but the existence of a suitable number of workers with sufficient training, and according  the Council has reviewed possible job market reserves and the ,most important related productivity challenges”, the Minister added.

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At the press conference, president and CEO of MOL Zsolt Hernádi said that with relation to Hungarian competitiveness it has been apparent for some time that action must be taken to develop the capabilities of the Hungarian economy. “Measures that have a short.-term effect are of course also required, but the question of competitiveness is usually a long-term task, and the Council operates in this spirit”, he added. “We must continue to focus on areas such as education, healthcare and the demographics situation”, Mr. Hernádi highlighted.

(Ministry for National Economy)