According to the prime minister, the competitiveness of the European Union is deteriorating at a rate that the Hungarian economy cannot withstand. Viktor Orbán presented the government's plan, which would keep Hungary out of the disintegration of the world economy.

One of the priority goals of the Hungarian EU presidency is to create a competitiveness pact by the end of the year, because the competitiveness of the union is rapidly deteriorating, which is also putting a significant burden on the Hungarian economy - Prime Minister Viktor Orbán spoke about this at the National University of Public Service. The prime minister added: Hungary's economic neutrality is primarily based on doing business with whoever we want.
"There is a new world, it has new problems, and the answers of the past do not provide solutions to these problems," Viktor Orbán declared in his presentation at the National University of Public Service. The Prime Minister, who spoke at the European Competitiveness, Hungarian Economic Neutrality event, added: the 20th century cannot be brought back to life, and instead of all kinds of oniony ideological approaches, the voice of common sense is needed: a new economic policy must be announced, or at least a new chapter must be opened in European economic policy.

The Prime Minister spoke about the fact that economic neutrality is what gives a chance for success in the current global economic situation, a chance to improve economic competitiveness.

"For Hungary, the essence of economic neutrality is that we are at the exact place, both geographically and intellectually, where the various world economic systems, despite their distance from each other, necessarily overlap and meet somewhere, and money flows will also need permeable channels. After Hungary implemented a national turnaround in 2010 instead of a liberal economic policy - we have a national government, national sovereignty is our most important goal, we actually have the power or political basis of a neutral economic policy," said the Prime Minister.

Viktor Orbán added: the Hungarian instinct for life, which has always been inclined towards sovereignty, is now coming to our aid.

The Prime Minister then explained the basic principles of economic neutrality.

"We decide who we do business with. So if we want to do business with someone, we do not do business through another power center, but we establish a direct relationship. The second aspect, the second basic principle, on which an economic neutrality can be based, is that we do business with those who are most worth doing business with. Nothing precedes the aspect of economic efficiency and competitiveness. The third basic principle could be to say that we only negotiate on the basis of our own values," the Prime Minister stated.

This seems to be evidence - Viktor Orbán continued - but the practice in Europe and the United States is the opposite, because there is linking of goods. He cited the EU subsidies to Hungary as an example.

"Economic neutrality does not tolerate product tying. You cannot confuse ideological issues with economic issues. That's why there is no woke, gender, migration, or I don't know what prerequisites in any economic relationship. We must strive to ensure that our economic relations are exclusively economic, and therefore we must not give up any of our own values ​​for the sake of economic relations," he added.

The Prime Minister called it an important basic principle that we must orientate ourselves towards all horizons if we want to develop, if we want to be modern, and if we want to be competitive. Viktor Orbán emphasized: Hungary must also be present on the London, Japanese, Chinese and Arab financial markets in order to obtain the loans necessary for the country's operation. The prime minister also drew attention to the fact that there is no need to choose among capital investments coming to Hungary.

Competitiveness must be placed at the center of the Hungarian presidency

He recalled that former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and former President of the European Central Bank (ECB) was asked by the European Union to write a report on the future of the EU's competitiveness.

Listing the most important findings of the report, Viktor Orbán said, among other things, that the EU's economic growth over the past two decades has been consistently slower than that of the United States, while China has quickly caught up. He added that EU productivity is growing more slowly than that of its competitors.

The prime minister stated that the report was written by "an irreproachable Brusselsite" who was also the prime minister of one of the EU's founding member states.

The prime minister pointed out that what a citizen or leader of a founding member state says has a different weight than what the leaders of countries that joined later.

The West responded to the transformation of the world economy by returning to the logic of the Cold War

Referring to the recently published Draghi report, the Prime Minister emphasized that the competitiveness of the European Union is deteriorating at a rate that the Hungarian economy cannot withstand. We have no doubt that the center of gravity of the world economy has changed in recent years, he warned.

It is clear that the dynamics are in Asia, there is the most money, the largest banks, companies, universities, the most innovations and patents, he said.

According to Viktor Orbán, the West's answer to this phenomenon is blockade.

They are trying to separate the Eastern and Western economies, sometimes with a vehemence reminiscent of the Iron Curtain, he noted, adding: in fact, they are also trying in Brussels and Washington to revive the 20th century, with which they are splitting the world economy in two.

Hungary can implement a policy of economic neutrality

According to the prime minister's assessment, the political consequence of economic neutrality is that Hungary must remain in the economic growth band between three and six percent, so that it cannot slip back into debt slavery, i.e. it cannot let the IMF back in. It needs a disciplined fiscal policy, as well as a modern technology sector and continuous tax cuts.

He said: the policy of economic neutrality must also appear in the 2025 budget, as part of this, a capital subsidy program must be announced for SMEs, the family tax initiative must be doubled, and an employee loan similar to the student loan must be introduced.

In his presentation at the National University of Public Service (NKE), the prime minister explained the basic principles, content elements and political consequences of Hungary's economic neutrality, including financing, investment, market, technological and energy neutrality.

Hungary cannot stay out of the technological mainstream

He emphasized: economic neutrality will only stand on its feet if Hungary is not left out of the technological mainstream.

Hungary has a national, conservative government, but we must not be averse to modernity, because without modern technology there is no competitiveness, said Viktor Orbán.

MTI / hirado.hu

Cover photo: Prime Minister Viktor Orbán gives a speech at the National Public Service University (NKE) conference entitled European competitiveness and Hungarian economic neutrality in the Ludovika main building of the NKE, in the Széchenyi Ballroom on September 25, 2024.
MTI/Koszticsák Solid