The goal of the government is for the advancement of the Hungarian economy to reach 85 per cent of the EU average by 2030, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said at his year-opening international press conference.

We must also keep up the increase in employment and wages as there is no other way to eradicate poverty. For the first time after thirty years, the number of people in employment is above 4.5 million, and compared with 2010 more than 800,000 more people have jobs. Wages have been on the rise for 82 consecutive months, and wage rises have been the highest in the lowest earning categories.

The Hungarian economy is one of the most competitive economies in Europe. At the same time, without a separate economy protection action plan it is impossible to achieve the goal of keeping our growth minimum 2 per cent above the European average. The Prime Minister will outline details of the new action plan in his February state-of-the-nation address. He underlined that in 2019 the highest volume of investments of all time was implemented in Hungary, and Asian investments accounted for 38 per cent of new Hungarian jobs which serves as confirmation of the legitimacy of the easterly opening strategy.

Regarding the state of health care, he informed the press that regrouping development funds, they had assigned the top priority to the refurbishment of hospital waiting rooms, wards and connected facilities, while health care workers and nurses would receive a 72 per cent pay rise over a period of 3 years.

The Prime Minister said they are including new settlements in the programme serving to improve the situation of the poorest villages. The goal is for his government to become the government that will eradicate poverty. He cited EU data which confirms that today there are 1.3 million fewer poor people in Hungary compared with earlier surveys.

The government has adopted a national energy and climate protection strategy. According to Mr Orbán, by 2030 they will render 90 per cent of Hungary’s electricity production carbon-neutral, and as a result, Paks would account for the bulk of our energy, while solar energy would be the second most important energy source. Hungary could join the ranks of countries which could become climate-neutral economies by 2050, however, this would require HUF 50,000 billion. The government will develop a climate and environmental protection action plan with specific measures, including that only electric buses could be commissioned in public transport in the future, all illegal waste disposal sites will have to be eliminated, and rivers must be cleared of plastic bottles.

Military bases where Hungarian soldiers are also stationed have been targeted with ballistic missiles; however, no one was injured. As much as soldiers can be safe, Hungarian soldiers in Iraq are. All the conditions are in place for the immediate evacuation of soldiers, should the need arise, he said in the context of the Iraq-Iran conflict.

In view of the current migration situation, the government has decided to increase the number of military and police personnel serving at the southern border, given that the daily number of illegal border-crossing attempts is now above a hundred.

(MTI)