Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in an interview with Nyíregyháza Television that we need national industry and national industrial corporations because without their success, there is no Hungarian success.

In the programme broadcast on early Thursday evening, the Prime Minister said in connection with the Tiszaújváros project of Mol Nyrt. inaugurated on Tuesday that while the presence in Hungary of foreign investors creating a great many jobs is important, Hungarian businesses must be reinforced also in the realm of suppliers with a view to creating a national industry.

“Mol has already grown out of the supplier status; it is now a key regional industrial player”, the Prime Minister said, and then remarked that the country needs national industry and national industrial corporations similar to the oil company. By Mr. Orbán’s account, more and more such businesses “are trying their wings”, a smaller percentage of which are state-owned, while the majority are in private ownership, and these are therefore the companies of Hungarian private capital investors and owners.

Without their success, there is no Hungarian success, Mr. Orbán pointed out, adding that we must create a strong economic “fabric” of national industrial corporations; businesses should mutually help one another.

On the occasion of his visit to Nyíregyháza within the framework of the Modern Cities Programme, the Prime Minister told local television that Nyíregyháza is a successful city which has a highly positive reputation among foreign investors because everyone who invested here and embarked on projects in the industrial park may be satisfied.

“It is easy to recommend a city to a foreign investor if we have behind it all the accomplished work as a gold reserve”, Mr. Orbán said with reference to the job-creating investment of Continental announced on Tuesday which will also involve Nyíregyháza. Regarding the establishment of a new 320-hectare industrial park laid down in the Nyíregyháza agreement of the Modern Cities Programme, the Prime Minister pointed out that this is a fair agreement and a great opportunity for the city because most of the landed area will be purchased by the State, and the municipality will be required to provide for the infrastructure and the operation of the industrial park.

“You will have more investors than you can take in”, he said. In his words, as a result of the assumption by the State of the city’s debt of HUF 19 billion, the economic growth which has been ongoing since 2010 and job-creating investments, unemployment has decreased from the former 8-9 per cent to 5.5 per cent, which may even indicate that a shortage of work force may soon set in in Nyíregyháza.

In answer to the question regarding infrastructure developments, Mr. Orbán said that the construction of the western bypass road, a project worth HUF 18 billion, will be completed, and additionally an agreement has been reached on the construction of three main traffic junctions in the city. A 30-kilometre-long bicycle path will connect Nyíregyháza and Tokaj together, of which a section of 7.7 kilometres has already been completed, and the remaining section will be completed by the end of 2016.

Regarding the investments worth billions of forints in the field of culture, the Prime Minister mentioned in the interview the refurbishment of the Kállay Mansion and the outdoor theatre and the reconstruction works in the Sóstó Museum Village. In the context of the refurbishment of the building which was once home to Prime Minister Miklós Kállay and his family, Mr. Orbán stressed that it is important that people today should turn towards their ancestors and their achievements with respect and care.

„The success of economic investments also depends on whether we look upon our own lives with the right mentality and the right outlook on life, and I think that the refurbishment of a Kállay Mansion, a Kállay cult, and the establishment of a Kállay memorial site stand as proof of the right mentality”, he said.

Upon speaking about the Sóstó developments which are key to tourism, Mr. Orbán stressed that sufficient funds will be allocated for the construction of a four-star hotel with two hundred beds in Sóstó, but the city will have to provide for the operation of the facility. The Prime Minister described this part of the agreement as “a risky decision, but a decision which conveys an acceptable risk”. At this point in time, there is no guarantee for the recovery of the project, and the State therefore assumed this risk, the Prime Minister said.

Mr. Orbán further told local television that, with the athletics centre to be created on the NYVSC ground, a large sports complex will come into being in Nyíregyháza, and if the local football team – which is currently in Division III – is promoted to Division II, it will be possible to consider the plans and ideas related to the refurbishment of the city stadium.

(Prime Minister's Office)