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In line with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s decision, the Ministry of Economic Development will continue its activities under a new name: Ministry for National Economy, from January 1.
The ministry informed the public that the aim of the transformation is to ensure that it supports the government’s primary economic policy goal for 2024, namely the restoration of economic growth, with a new and innovative approach and an expanded scope of tasks (e.g. trade, space industry development, tourism), in line with the prime minister’s expectations.
On December 12, parliament decided on amendments to laws affecting certain central government administrative bodies. The amendments have created an independent Ministry of Public Administration and Regional Development, including the National Development Center, and changed the name of the Ministry of Economic Development to the Ministry for National Economy. Between 2010 and 2018, a Ministry for National Economy already existed, fulfilling the functions of the Ministry of Finance.
However, the current amendment has no impact on the Ministry of Finance and its responsibilities.
Index previously speculated that one of the main reasons for the name change could be to extend the tasks and responsibilities of the Ministry of Economic Development. This speculation proved to be true, as the role of the former Minister of Economic Development, Márton Nagy, has indeed been extended. Under a decree published on December 22,
his responsibilities were extended to five areas: space industry development, tourism, hospitality, domestic trade, and employment of third-country nationals in Hungary.
In addition, the ministry announced that a new governmental macroeconomic analysis system will be set up within its organizational system, whose basic tasks include providing the basis for the government’s decisions on the national economy by preparing impact studies, preparing macroeconomic analyses and forecasts, and monitoring relevant international economic policy processes and events.
Minister Nagy proposed Gergely Suppan as Deputy State Secretary for Macroeconomic Analysis for the task of setting up the new government macroeconomic analysis system, which was accepted by the prime minister.
As the statement reads, further measures are needed to restore economic growth. According to the ministry, the first step towards restoring economic growth is to make progress in three interlinked areas. Firstly, household consumption needs to be restored. Increasing real wages is necessary but not sufficient, therefore it is necessary to increase the trust of the Hungarian population and to remove the cautionary motive. Second, domestic production and investment need to be restored. The government aims to keep investment above 25 percent, and will develop a new loan program to this end, that could be launched early next year. As a third step, labor market activity needs to be further increased, with the activity rate in the 15-64 age group rising from 78 percent to 85 percent. To this end, the government will prepare a new and targeted labor market program, they said.
Via MTI, Featured image: Pixabay