Minister for National Economy Mihály Varga said that cutting government debt and improving employment are the two main objectives of Hungarian economic policy.
The Minister pointed out that the current government debt-to-GDP ratio is 76.9 percent, which is well below the above 80 percent level of 2010. Thus, the country’s vulnerability has significantly been lowered. Employment has also shown massive improvement, as the unemployment rate fell from some 12 percent in 2010 to 7.4 percent in 2015, he added. Mihály Varga stressed that as long as there are people in the country who are seeking a job but cannot find one the unemployment rate must be further reduced and full employment must be reached.
The Government continues to focus on supporting working people and enterprises that provide jobs. Part of this process is the overhaul of the vocational training system, which field has been under the sphere of competence of the Ministry for National Economy since the beginning of this year. Through vocational training reform the Government intends to improve the labour market prospects of people.
The Minister stated that Brussels has approved five out of the altogether ten operative programmes, of which three belong to the Economy Ministry, and thus calls for tenders related to economic development, regional development and competitiveness operative programmes are to be published soon. Within these, job-generating development projects will be paid special attention, especially those by SMEs, as they provide 73 percent of jobs in the country.
(Ministry for National Economy)
