A national competitiveness strategy with the main points of growth is to be submitted to the Government soon, Minister of Finance Mihály Varga said at the latest meeting of the National Competitiveness Council.
A draft version has been completed for which proposals by the National Bank of Hungary, the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry as well as the Ministry of Innovation and Technology had been taken into consideration. This draft serves as a stepping stone for initiating concrete measures aiming to boost the country’s competitiveness, the Minister stressed.
The document discussed earlier today summarized proposals required for a major shift in Hungary’s competitiveness in eight categories and provided an in-depth macro-economic study, Mihály Varga noted. Having analysed the current state of taxation, public administration, healthcare, education, infrastructure (including transport), corporate innovation and employment, Council members initiated the elaboration of a comprehensive strategy.
The Hungarian economy has been expanding since 2013, and the pace of growth has accelerated to 4-5 percent by now, the Minister pointed out. On the other hand, he added, it would be hard to make up for the slump caused by the economic policy mismanagement in the mid-2000s. Nowadays the most important task is to maintain a high rate of growth and this necessitates the improvement of our competitiveness, he said. To this end, the Government must implement adequate measures after having evaluated a well-funded strategy and adopted an action plan.
At today’s meeting, the Council heard the opinions and remarks of members of the draft.
(Ministry of Finance)
