“The more difficulties the Hungarian minority in Transcarpathia are faced with, or the more they are forced to face, their home country will provide them with all the more support and assistance”, Parliamentary State Secretary Levente Magyar from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said on Monday in Beregszász (Berehove, Ukraine), where one thousand businesspeople signed funding agreements within the framework of the economic development programme for the Hungarian minority in Transcarpathia, launched this year by the Hungarian Government with a budget of 7.5 billion forints (EUR 25 M).

In his welcome speech at the signing ceremony held in the great hall of the Ferenc Rákóczi II. Transcarpathian Hungarian Institute, Mr. Magyar stressed: “We are most certainly witnessing a historic event in view of the fact that never before in the life of the Hungarian minority in Transcarpathia have one thousand five hundred entrepreneurs simultaneously received a total of some 3.7 billion forints in economic development funding from the Hungarian Government”. “We are concluding tender agreements with a thousand businesspeople on Monday, and with a further five hundred during the course of the next one or two weeks”, he added.

The Deputy Minister reminded those present that at the end of last year the Hungarian Government had already provided over two billion forints to Transcarpathian Hungarians within the framework of the Egán Ede Economic Development Programme, which was distributed to some 14 thousand people. “The Government paid the land privatisation costs of 13 thousand applicants to enable them to begin farming, while one thousand Hungarian entrepreneurs received funding towards the development of their existing farms”, he explained.

“Another 3.7 billion forints in funding is available for a further 1500 Hungarian entrepreneurs this year, meaning that over a period of a single year the Hungarian Government will have assisted the development of Hungarian businesses in Transcarpathia with almost ten billion forints, affecting some 17 thousand families”, he added.

“For the economic development funding provided to the Hungarian minority in Transcarpathia to become such a success story requires a committed national government that took up the issue, and it required an open environment in Transcarpathia, meaning the vitality and entrepreneurial spirit of Transcarpathian Hungarians, which despite the many difficulties, and to the great surprise of many, has surges to the surface with elemental power during the past year”, Mr. Magyar highlighted. “The large number of submitted tenders speaks for itself in this regard”, he pointed out.

“Together with the signing ceremony for the tender agreements we are also celebrating the fact that we are part of a strong nation that stands up for everyone if they are in trouble, including the Hungarian minority in Transcarpathia”, the Deputy Foreign Minister said, stressing that even more important than modernising Hungarian enterprises is the fact that the Hungarian Government’s economic development programme should provide faith and strength to Transcarpathian Hungarians towards their daily struggle to remain Hungarian in the land of their birth.

“The most important thing is that Transcarpathian Hungarians feel that they have the support of a thousand-year-old, strong nation that they can lean on and rely on under any and all circumstances. Even if politics in Kiev continues to move forward along the dangerous road of restricting minority rights and Transcarpathian Hungarians are not viewed as a vital resource for Ukraine and a national minority that is loyal to Ukraine and wishes to help build the country, but as an enemy”, he pointed out. With relation to this, Mr. Magyar stressed that Transcarpathian Hungarians “should take seriously the statement according to which the more difficulties the Hungarian minority in Transcarpathia are faced with, or the more they are forced to face, their home country will under all circumstances provide them with all the more support and assistance”.

In his speech, President of the Transcarpathian Hungarian Cultural Association (KMKSZ) and Member of Ukrainian Parliament László Brenzovics highlighted: “The significance of the economic development funding provided by the Hungarian Government can only really be evaluated in comparison to the fact that over recent generations the Hungarian minority in Transcarpathia has usually only had things taken away from them”. “Accordingly, we can express only our thanks to the Hungarian Government and to Hungarian society for the major support that it has given and is giving to the Hungarian minority in Transcarpathia, which in addition to our economy is also reinforcing our community”, the KMKSZ President said.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade/MTI)