By virtue of a number of new developments and investments, the alliance between Hungary and Audi is further intensifying, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó told the Hungarian News Agency MTI after his meeting with the Chairman of the automobile manufacturing company’s Board of Management in Ingolstadt, Bavaria on Thursday.
Hungary needs to make some changes in its higher education system in order to make it sustainable, State Minister for Higher Education László Palkovics said on national TV channel M1 on Thursday night. He said that systemic problems had prompted the Ministry of Human Capacities to initiate changes in 2013, and the higher education strategy for 2014 had also recognised the need for change.
Following the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Government Spokesperson Zoltán Kovács told public news channel M1 that the Government will increase the amount allocated for the construction of the temporary border barrier and for the temporary placement of migrants by HUF 22.2 billion.
At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade on 28 July, Deputy State Secretary for International Cooperation Ádám Zoltán (representing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade) and Head of the UNHCR Global Service Centre Rossella Pagliuchi-Lor (representing the UN Refugee Agency) signed a protocol amending the agreement on the organisation’s headquarters, regulating its legal status in Hungary in Budapest. This amendment will facilitate the expansion of the UNHCR Service Centre, which has been operating in Budapest since 2008.
According to the latest report by the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH), the number of people in employment has been above the 4 million mark for almost one-and-a-half years. In April-June 2015, the number of those in employment aged 15-74 years increased by 126 thousand, to 4 million 201 thousand. Thus, the employment rate has reached a 23-year high in Hungary and the unemployment rate fell to an 11-year low of 6.9 percent.
At a panel discussion at the Bálványos Summer University and Student Camp in Transylvania on Wednesday, Minister of Human Capacities Zoltán Balog said that Hungary will launch its own Erasmus programme enabling exchanges between Hungarian students in Hungary and abroad.
The development policy of the period between 2014-2020 may be regarded as successful if there are 5 million jobs, that is, 800,000 more jobs in Hungary by 2020 than there are at present, and if the country is able to build and develop its industries which promote the growth of the economy, Deputy State Secretary for Development Policy Communication Nándor Csepreghy said.
On Tuesday Government Spokesperson Zoltán Kovács told national news channel M1 that by the end of the year as many as 250–300,000 immigrants might have arrived in Hungary, which is why the country needs the security barrier on its southern border.
According to Government Spokesperson Zoltán Kovács, an overwhelming majority of the over one million respondents in the national consultation on immigration agree with the questionnaire’s statements.
The Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has criticised Prime Minister Viktor Orbán for uploading pictures on his Facebook page which it says depict revisionist symbols. Responding to a question on the issue from Hungarian news agency MTI, Press Chief of the Prime Minister’s Office Bertalan Havasi said that the images are of historical symbols.