“The main goal of the highest ever economic development funding provided to the Hungarian minority in Subcarpathia by the Hungarian Government is to keep the community on its native soil and to facilitate the livelihoods and continued existence of the Hungarian community”, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Minister of State for Economic Diplomacy Levente Magyar declared on Thursday evening in Huszt, Ukraine.

This is the third time in a month that Mr. Magyar has held informative forums in Hungarian towns and settlements also inhabited by Hungarians on the opportunities open to Hungarian enterprises in Subcarpathia thanks to the funding provided by the Hungarian Government. On the first day of his official visit to Carpathian Ruthenia the Minister of State visited Nagybocskó (Velikij Bicskiv) in Rahó district, and the Técső district towns of Aknaszlatina (Szolotvino) and Huszt, where he met with local Hungarian businesspeople.

On the Huszt stop of his tour, in reply to a question from Hungarian news agency MTI, Mr. Magyar said: “The main goal of the highest ever economic development funding provided to the Hungarian minority in Subcarpathia by the Hungarian Government is to keep the community on its native soil and to facilitate the livelihoods and continued existence of the Hungarian community”.

“We would like the economic recovery programme to provide the Hungarians in Subcarpathia with access to suitable work opportunities to they aren’t forced to leave their native land to work abroad, or if they have already left then to reach out to them and entice them home”, he added. “In the interests of achieving this goal, this year we are making available a level of funding of some seven billion forints, the likes of which has never been injected into Subcarpathia for any reason”, he said, “If we add to this the almost 3 billion forints distributed last year, it speaks for itself”, he noted. “Last year more than a thousand Hungarian enterprises in Subcarpathia received non-returnable funding and around 14 thousand Hungarians living in Subcarpathia received funding for purchasing farmland”, he pointed out, adding that he hoped tens of thousands of Hungarian families would be receiving a share of the funding this year.

Mr. Magyar stressed that The Hungarian Government’s economic recovery programme is not a gift; the funding provided can only be used for economic development and job creation. With regard to his experiences during his visits so far, the Minister of State highlighted that following the initial scepticism people opened up, once they saw that this is real, tangible funding after 97 percent of last year’s tender applications were awarded monies, and now more and more people are enquiring about the available opportunities, primarily within the fields of agriculture, industry and tourism. Mr. Magyar told the press that he would be doing everything possible to reach local Hungarian entrepreneurs in even the most distant settlements, and this was why he was now visiting Hungarian minority settlements in the Upper Tisza region for a second time.

The politician told reporters that he would be informing the public at a further five locations on Thursday, on in the evening would be holding a forum for several hundred people at the II. Rákóczi Ferenc Hungarian College of Subcarpathia in Beregszász (Berehove), after which he will be meeting with city and district leaders. At the meetings he would like to find out more about local needs and problems, he added. The Hungarian Government is paying particular attention to the Hungarian cultural and intellectual centre of Beregszász, which has always been treated badly by previous governing powers, adding that the city wold be at the centre of the economic development programme and can also expect to receive significant additional funding for other purposes. On the final day of his informative tour of Subcarpathia, the Minister of state will be visiting a further ten settlements in the Berehove district.

On 15 March of this year in Beregszász, Levente Magyar announced that in 2017 the Hungarian Government would be providing a total of 20 billion forints (EUR 64M) in non-returnable funding and preferential loans to Hungarian enterprises in Subcarpathia within the framework of the Egán Ede Economic Development Programme.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade/MTI)