Hungary has become self-sufficient in manufacturing medical-grade masks that protect against the coronavirus, Finance Minister Mihály Varga said at the launch of a production line turning out one million masks a day at the plant of Vajda Papír in Dunaföldvár.
The 1.4 billion forint (EUR 3.9m) investment supported by a 1.1 billion government grant has created 16 new jobs and preserved 134, the finance ministry cited Varga as saying on Wednesday.
The government launched its health industry support scheme when the need to boost protection capacities skyrocketed during the coronavirus epidemic, Varga said. The scheme allocated 50 billion forints to support 46 investments, he said.
The goal is to make Hungary self-sufficient in manufacturing protective health-care equipment and to cut its dependence on imports, he said.
He said the Hungarian health-care industry had proven its professional knowledge and development potential over the past few months, “making government support worthwhile”. The funding framework has been raised to 68 billion forints, he said, noting that so far the scheme has supported developments in the production of protective gear, medical equipment, raw pharmaceutical materials and disinfectants.
In the featured photo: Finance minister Mihály Varga (on the right). Photo by Balázs Mohai/MTI
