The Hungarian government’s action plan to restart the economy will be followed by a large-scale investment support scheme which will be co-financed with the European Union, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told lawmakers at the first plenary meeting of parliament’s spring session.
The higher education sector will be the greatest beneficiary of this scheme, involving an unprecedented 1,500-2,000 billion forints (EUR 4.2-5.6bn) to be used for developing universities, he said.
Orbán said the current logic of crisis management was very different from that seen before 2010 when it had been mostly pensioners who were forced to pay the price of crises.
Commenting on the gradual re-introduction of the 13th month pensioners’ bonus, Orbán said it was an obligation to express respect for those that have built the country with their life’s work. As regards the personal income tax exemption for Hungarians under the age of 25, he said the government considered it important that “young people should be able to stand on their own two feet and start an independent life”.
Orbán said Hungary was a strong country which “stood the test” of the pandemic. The prime minister said that so far, the government’s crisis management measures had focused on protecting jobs. The cabinet introduced a moratorium on loan repayments, a wage support scheme for troubled businesses, took over half of the wage costs of sectors most affected by the pandemic, scrapped the social contribution tax and halved the business tax, he noted. The government has disbursed 80 billion forints to struggling businesses as part of its wage support scheme, helping them save 250,000 jobs. The investment support scheme has helped 1,434 companies so far, helping preserve 280,000 jobs, he added.
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