At the economic policy forum ‘Business Year Opening 2020’ organised by the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which was held on Tuesday in Budapest, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán promised government assistance to economic players sustaining losses due to the coronavirus infection.

An economy protection action plan must be launched, the Prime Minister stated, asking the Chamber to gather together, and by the end of April to forward to the government the “down-to-earth” feedback of economic players about the means with which they can be helped through anticipated difficulties in each sector.

We need targeted, sector-specific programmes – not macroeconomic measures – in tourism, for instance, and the government will create the necessary financial conditions, the Prime Minister said, indicating that this year’s as well as next year’s budget will have to be re-planned. Economy boosting assistance worth billions of euros will be necessary which will require a contribution on everybody’s part.

A solution must be found to ensure that economic recession should not reach the depths experienced in 2008-2009, but should be contained to a level which enables Hungary to preserve its advantage, a growth rate minimum 2 per cent above the EU average, he said.

Mr Orbán stressed that we must prepare for a global pandemic, and for the fact that the psychological uncertainty arising from the lack of a vaccine against the coronavirus will not go away, and it is primarily this sensation, the resulting “defensive attitude” that will influence economic activities.

He added that it had taken China 5 to 6 months to contain the virus which would mean July in our case, meaning that “the tourism season for this year is dead”, and so those who are more dependent on people’s willingness to travel will have to expect a serious economic decline.

He also told the attending economic players that they must prepare for “brutal changes”, everyone will be required to step out of their comfort zones because “if we only do as much in the next ten years as we have done in the past decade, and the way we have done it, we will go bankrupt”.

And if this was not enough, he observed, we also have the industry policy consequences of Brexit. There is not much “to enthuse” over the EU’s new industry policy concept; it already shows that Britain has left the EU, and contains elements which adversely affect Hungary’s competitive advantage, he said.

In his address, the Prime Minister repeated that he regards the past 10 years as the most successful 10 years of the past 100 years, and this success is a robust enough argument for continued success.

He highlighted at the same time that it is not enough to express success in terms of growth figures; success is only worthwhile if there is a sustainable structure, combined with financial balance behind it.

Among the turnarounds achieved since 2012, he mentioned a deficit below 3 per cent, the reduction of the sovereign debt to 66 per cent – regarding which he added that its rate will soon fall to below 60 per cent – and the ongoing reduction of the percentage of foreign currency debts within the sovereign debt. In the context of the latter he observed that the government is seeking to phase out foreign currency debts and to finance from forints the Hungarian sovereign debt which should be in Hungarian hands in its entirety.

He spoke about the central bank’s monetary policy in terms of praise because through it they managed to achieve that compared with 2012 the interest payable on the sovereign debt decreased by HUF 900 billion by 2019.

In summary, Mr Orbán pointed out that there are balance factors behind the growth of the Hungarian economy, and we must protect the results we have achieved in the next ten years as well.

The Prime Minister highlighted that there are multiple factors behind the results achieved by the government in the past ten years. These include the robust mandate received from the electorate, the courage of economic policy decision-makers to take some bold steps, including sending the International Monetary Fund (IMF) packing, and the ability to regain the trust of economic players and to convince foreign investors.

He also stressed that Hungary’s economic policy can only be viable and successful if it connects to the nation’s cultural and anthropological characteristics. In this regard, he described the Hungarian people as a nation which desires a proud life, but one which at the same time does not like brashness and exhibitionism.

Between 2012 and 2020, an economic policy has been pursued in Hungary which is in line with the Hungarian character, he said in evaluation, adding that also in the coming ten years we will have to find a formula which brings extra performance out of the people.

He observed that, in his view, the debate surrounding the National Curriculum is about this, too as the question is what we should teach our children: pride and performance, “or we should instead teach them about lost wars which, no doubt, constitute important information, but cannot constitute the core of the curriculum”. The core of the curriculum must be about the fact that after a hundred years, having lost two thirds of the territory of our country and 60 per cent of our population, “we are still standing here, and we are talking about how to protect our achievements in the next ten years,” the Prime Minister said.

(MTI)