Significantly Faster Payment of Grants2011. április 8.
"In the last 10 months EU grant payments totalled to HUF 650 billion, three times as much on a monthly average as in the period before June 2010", said Tamás Fellegi in Debrecen on 7 April, at the last stage of the national tour to introduce the New Széchenyi Plan.
The Minister for National Development talked about the continuation of the block housing renovation programme, the success of the new support scheme, the Széchenyi Programme Offices opening in May, and the already implemented and long term plans of the renewal of the development policy.
"The joint goal of the New Széchenyi Plan aimed at the development of the key industries of Hungary's economy and the Széll Kálmán Plan of structural reforms is the creation of jobs, the stimulation of rapid economic growth and the increase of Hungary's competitiveness", said the Minister, who emphasized that the significantly more targeted and effective use of the remaining EU sources of HUF 2020 billion could give a significant boost to investments in progress and could help micro, small and medium-sized enterprises creating jobs gain strength.
Tamás Fellegi explained the complete renewal of the development policy in detail. As he said former chaos would be replaced by a system that was built and operated based on a unified an all-encompassing strategy and focused development goals. The regulation was simplified, source coordination became unified, the system of institutions is more transparent, and the system of support became more effective. As a result of these measures payments are significantly faster – the amount has tripled since the new government took office.
The Ministry of National Development offers a wide range of information, and a series of 150 events were organised to introduce the goals and the system of the New Széchenyi Plan for more than 5,000 participants. Besides the 18 regional customer service offices a continuously expanding national network of information points was set up, which consists of 200 IPs today. Government "windows" will join the information network soon, and by May when the Széchenyi Programme Offices open a single national network will be available that fulfils the following tasks: distribution of information, coordination among the intermediary bodies and the tenderers, and liaising.
Tamás Fellegi emphasized that since the beginning of March when the new support scheme was started there had been a rapid growth in the number of submitted tenders – the number was over 500 at the time of his speech. SMEs also became more active with the start of the Business Development Programme. Nearly 100 tenders of HUF 2.5 billion were submitted last week.
Until 20 March this year's payments amounted to HUF 153 billion. Latest figures show that more than HUF 100 billion was committed through the credit scheme of NSzP for small and medium-sized enterprises, and the number of enterprises taking advantage of the combined credit scheme introduced a month ago and aimed to support investments is growing continuously.
The Minister also informed participants that a decision was taken on Wednesday that in the framework of the NSzP - GIS Climate-friendly Home Panel II Sub-programme 228 tenders would be supported, which would cover the renovation of 22,154 homes using funds totalling to HUF 12.58 billion.
After the contracts are signed the energy system of approximately 20,000-23,000 flats will be modernised in housing blocks, reducing living costs for the respective number of families. Contracts will be posted starting from the middle of April tenderers will be allowed four months to sign the contracts.
As a closing thought of the section about the ongoing changes, the Minister explained that all provisions applicable to development policy would be incorporated into Act, creating a single, transparent and strong regulation. Besides this all development sources will be integrated in one chapter in next year's budget, making it easier to plan and monitor the use of sources on government level. Re-regulation the public procurement system is also ongoing with the purpose to devise a system of transparent, fast and cheap procurement that will considerably alleviate the operation of Hungarian small and medium-sized enterprises.
Closing his speech Tamás Fellegi emphasized that the radical renewal of the development policy was more than just an empty slogan: it was indeed a real and radical change of approach. While former governments were spending large sums without any concept, the system was changed now along the lines of a single and rational strategy with the aim to strengthen SMEs. During the process the Ministry handles enterprises as partners and considers them to be the most important allies in the creation of jobs, and seeks to continue the dialogue as the keys to sustainable growth of the Hungarian economy are common goals, cooperation and continuous efforts.