Complex Economic Development in Záhony 7 November 2008
The strategic objective of the Záhony complex economic development programme is to ensure the distribution of goods - held up here due to track gauge changes - from this particular location, as well as the on-site processing of raw materials and stocks arriving at this transfer point.
In order to promote this, a series of developments will be accomplished by 2010 within the framework of the programme through the development of the transport infrastructure, as well as funding targeting economic development and training granted by means of tendering. In order for the programme to mobilise enterprises operating in the highest possible number of regions, the technical management presented the components of the development programme to the county and regional members of the National Association of Entrepreneurs on 5 November 2008.
Mr Csaba Czomba County President of the National Association of Entrepreneurs opened the event, following which Mr Sándor Kis Kálnoki Special Commissioner of the Prime Minister and Mr Csaba Molnár, State Secretary of the Ministry for National Development and Economy held presentations.
The presentations mentioned that the eastern boundary of the European Union is situated at the crossroads of three strategically important, primarily railway transport routes, namely: Brest along the Polish border, at which point 48% of goods shipped by railway enter the EU, Cierna Nad Tisou in Slovakia and Záhony in Hungary, at which points 23% of goods shipped via railway enter the EU respectively. These settlements play a key strategic role for two main reasons: on the one hand, the shipment of goods can only continue at all three points once they are transferred from the wide gauge track laid in the members states of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) to the "standard" railway track used across Europe, whilst on the other hand all three transport routes have been crossing the Schengen border at these points since 2007, i.e. goods enter and leave the European Union at these transfer points.
The economic development programme directly extends to include the area of 16 settlements – out of which 3 are cities – covering an area of approximately 220 km². Beyond retaining transfer capacities, developing the capacity of the container terminal and launching the operation of the ROLA terminal, the strategic objective of the government programme is to promote the establishment of high volume goods transfer centres in the region situated along the boundary of the EU to ensure the east-west shipment of goods, as well as the on-site processing of raw materials and stocks arriving from the east. Consequently, in order to reach this strategic objective, the specific components of the programme target upgrading the reception capacity of the region by investing EU funding equivalent to a total of 32.5 billion HUF. The way in which new investments will be attracted to the region by implementing this programme represents a long-range future objective.
The activity of entrepreneurs is evident in the fact that funding of 1.7 billion HUF in value was approved for logistics and technological development-related projects up to 1 September 2008, which makes it possible to implement projects representing nearly 4.4 billion HUF in value.