Several billions of Forints earmarked for economic development – economic development programmes are popular 9 July 2008
The GDP grew by 3035 billion HUF during the 2004-2006-period, out of which a growth rate of 9.5% and equivalent to 290 billion HUF in value was attributable to the impact of the nearly 10 000 EU economic development tenders/applications.
The Economic Development Operational Programme running up to 2015 is just as popular: so far 4600 applicants have applied for a total funding of 236 billion HUF in value.
Mr Sándor Burányi, State Secretary of the Ministry of National Development and Economy and Ms Magdolna Kocsis, Head of the Economic Development Operational Programmes Managing Authority evaluated the two programmes.
Approximately 21 000 registered applications were submitted between 2004 and 2006 under the Economic Development Operational Programme announced within the framework of the National Development Plan, which applications applied for over twice the funding framework made available, i.e. exceeding 335 billion HUF in value. From among these, valid assistance contracts were concluded in the case of approximately 10 000 applications representing a total 165 billion HUF in value. The operational programme stipulating four priorities (investment promotion, development of small and medium size enterprises, supporting research and development and innovation operations, information society and economic development) over-performed the target-value by 300% in the area of economic development and raising employment levels.
The GDP grew by 3035 billion HUF during the 2004-2006-period, out of which a growth rate of 9.5% and equivalent to 290 billion HUF in value was attributable to the impact of the Economic Competitiveness Operational Programme. Acceptance of applications has closed and a ratio of payments of approximately 90% is currently still in progress.
The programme had a positive impact on equal opportunity and environmental protection as well and contributed to creating and preserving over 83 000 jobs (nearly 21 000 jobs were created).
The objective of the New Hungary Development Plan Economic Development Operational Programme is to ensure the permanent growth of the Hungarian economy, more specifically, to facilitate the development and financing of the four priority areas (R&D, small and medium size enterprises, modern business environment and SMEs).
The deadline date for the submission of the first series of EU economic development applications in 2008 closed on 5 May. Similarly to last year, keen interest was shown by enterprises and the available framework was considerably over-committed in the case of calls for applications targeting complex technology development. Several changes were made in relation to 2007, such as, it was possible to apply for higher amounts of funding in relation to last year in the case of calls with identical objectives to the ones announced last year and special attention is now being paid to allocating funding to the 33 most disadvantaged micro-regions.
According to the most recent data released, the value of the framework of the calls for application is equivalent to 329 billion HUF, out of which 77 billion HUF has been announced in 2008. So far 4600 applications have been submitted applying for funding of approximately 236 billion HUF in value; nearly 1800 valid assistance contracts have been concluded representing a total of 135 billion HUF in value. 2 Forints of private funding is mobilised after each Forint of funding granted by the Economic Development Operational Programme; the total value of private resources is equivalent to 142 billion HUF.
Within the framework of NHDP, the Economic Development Operational Programme, as well as the economic development resources of the development paths set by the Central Hungary Operational Programme complementing the former and the regional operational programmes – together with private resources – contribute to implementing developments of a total of 5800-6300 billion HUF in value during the 2007-2015-period.