In an interview given to Miskolc Local Television broadcast at 6.30 pm on Tuesday, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán praised the distinguished past and promising future of Miskolc.

This week the Prime Minister signed a cooperation agreement on the economic, tourism and information technology development of the Borsod county capital together with the Mayor of Miskolc Ákos Kriza (Fidesz-KDNP), as part of the Modern Cities programme. On Tuesday Mr. Orbán said that, prior to the fall of communism, Miskolc had earned prestige in heavy industry, mining and hard physical work, and these are also the values that can be built upon today: in order to be successful Miskolc must not turn its back on its past.

He added that Miskolc can become a 21st-century industrial city: a 20th-century city which has become a “modern city”.

Mr. Orbán recalled that, thanks to the cooperation agreement signed on Tuesday, the Hungarian section of the Miskolc-Kassa motorway will be constructed by 2019, an industrial zone of 1000 hectares will be established and the businesses planned to operate there will create thousands of jobs.

Talking about the restructuring of the higher education system, he said that the main aim is to satisfy the needs of the Hungarian economy. Mr. Orbán declared that a higher education system which is unable to provide the knowledge necessary for young people to become professionals – the sort of people needed by the Hungary of today – is a bad system.

The Prime Minister said that Miskolc is higher in the ranking of Hungarian cities that most of us would think.

“The people of Miskolc can count on me to help establish a more liveable city; I support the local council in the elimination of ghettos”, the Prime Minister said.

(MTI/Prime Minister's Office)