Lajos Kósa, prospective Minister without Portfolio responsible for the development of county-ranked cities described big cities as the possible engines of the development of the countryside at his committee hearing held on Wednesday in Budapest. The Economic Committee of Parliament found the politician suitable for the post with nine votes for and two votes against.

The ministerial candidate said in the context of the Modern Cities Programme that it has been thoroughly prepared, but „the brunt of the work has yet to be done”.

He said: the programme has some 250 projects, and the available EU and local funds amount to almost HUF 3,400 billion.

Mr Kósa highlighted regarding the creation of the ministerial post that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán would like to see the management of the programme concentrated in a single hand as at present multiple ministries are required to cooperate with the cities concerned in the implementation of the programme.

The prospective minister described Mr Orbán’s nomination that he should head the country’s biggest development programme as a great honour, and said: he is getting down to the job with great enthusiasm and ambition.

At the same time, Mr Kósa indicated that he will deal not only with this programme, but also with other developments concerning county-ranked cities in which the Government is a major player. He mentioned as an example the EU-funded cross-border projects.

He also highlighted that a long outstanding duty of the Modern Cities Programme is to connect the county-ranked cities to the European network of express roads and motorways, while this programme also includes road transport and railway developments.

According to Mr Kósa’s report, some 2.5 million people live in county-ranked cities, their „day-time population” is around 3 million, and in combination with the suburbs in their vicinity, they have a population of some 4 to 4.5 million. Consequently, the programme will affect their lives directly up to 31 December 2022.

Mr Kósa stated in answer to contributions from the opposition: he does not understand why it is a problem that money is being spent on prestige projects as they are projects that we have every reason to be proud of. He added: he does not want any projects which the given city cannot be proud of.

In answer to a question, he said: „according to the current scenario”, he will be entitled to manage and oversee the parts of the chapter-managed allocations which relate to the Modern Cities Programme, while he will also oversee the government agencies which are involved in the implementation of the programme.

He added: his activities cannot curtail the sovereignty of municipalities even if he has different ideas about certain projects.

Mr Kósa remarked at the press conference held after his hearing that, in his view, a few important, strategic issues were not discussed. One such topic is, for instance, how to coordinate at the level of management the county-ranked cities with an independent status and the suburbs surrounding them as the developments equally concern them all.

As another important issue, he raised the question of how to arrange local governments into groups from the respect of competence, position or management so that they can be better helped, developed and managed.

This would be important because the Hungarian municipal system created 3,200 fully independent localities, each with the same status, while the differences between the municipalities are enormous, the politician said.

(MTI/kormany.hu)