National Tour to Introduce the New Széchenyi Plan Arrives in Nógrád County2011. január 25.
Last week the Ministry of National Development launched a national tour to introduce the New Széchenyi Plan. The third event of the tour was hosted by Salgótarján on 25 January 2011.
The event was opened by János Barna, Vice President of the Nógrád County Chamber of Commerce and Industry. His prologue was followed by Zoltán Petykó, President of the National Development Agency, who introduced the strategic goals behind the New Széchenyi Plan.
The President of the National Development Agency talked about the goals for the period until 2014 that include the following: increase of the investment rate, facilitate economic growth and the creation of jobs. Talking about the regional development of Hungary, he explained that development indicators of all territorial units were closing to the average of EU member states, but there were considerable differences in the development ratio of the individual regions. Petykó highlighted that economic growth would be launched by the New Széchenyi Plan and the main areas would be the production and technology sectors. Compared to the first Széchenyi Plan the New Széchenyi Plan contains numerous new breakout points. Development of the healthcare industry by supporting health related investments and health tourism plays a major role. Green economy is a new breakout point, and the strong increase of employment is also among the priorities of the New Széchenyi Plan.
After Zoltán Petykó's speech Dr Anikó Kabai, Deputy Head of the Managing Authority of the Economic Development Operational Programme (GOP) talked about the 8 economic development programmes that are opening in a total of HUF 200 billion. More than half of this budget is available for small and medium-sized enterprises. Large companies can submit their project ideas to the innovation and employment expansion calls for tenders. Long-running and successful calls for tenders will still be available such as the tenders for complex and basic technological development. There is an innovation tender available that offers support from the inception of the idea to the start of manufacturing in a single project.
The schemes of the Social Renewal Operational Programme (SROP) were covered by Balázs Nagy. The EU Programme Director of ESZA Non-profit Kft introduced five new SROP tenders at the Salgótarján event. These are all connected to three breakout points: business development, employment, and science and innovation.
Tenders for the region were covered by Sándor Szoboszlai, Deputy Department Head of the Managing Authority of the Regional Operational Programmes (ROP). He explained that the budget for the Northern Hungary Region for the 2011–2013 period was HUF 100 billion. Tenders of the Regional Operational Programme are expected to open in three rounds: on 1 March, in April and in the middle of June.
Contributing partners of the national tour are the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the National Association of Entrepreneurs.