Orban: Govt to Provide Help for FX Conversions

Budapest, November 4 (MTI) – The new draft law on fair banking seeks to protect borrowers, Prime Minister Viktor Orban told journalists on Tuesday, adding that the government saw converting foreign currency loans into forint ones as a matter of urgency.

After a meeting of the Fidesz-KDNP parliamentary group, Orban said that the group had put forward a proposal for a bill on fair banking and the cabinet would consider it on Wednesday.

He said the bill was a complex one which ultimately aimed to protect loan-holders while bringing about a balance between the interests of banks and borrowers.

Orban said all internet service providers in Hungary had expressed disagreement over the flagged tax on internet traffic, as an expansion of the existing telecoms tax. He said he did not think the tax would be introduced next year either.

He said he had spoken with the head of Deutsche Telekom over the phone about planned developments which would enable broadband internet to be accessible in every household in Hungary by 2018. “Deutsche Telekom is a priority partner in these efforts,” Orban said.

The parliamentary group meeting also discussed changes to the education system, which Orban said he considered a key issue. Raising competitiveness can only be achieved by raising standards in education, so “much money and energy should be channelled to this area in the upcoming period,” he said. The government wants vocational schools to be able to focus on training and not “catchup work” for covering the holes left by primary school education, Orban said.

As regards the issue of Sunday work in the retail sector, Orban said KDNP’s proposal to keep shops shut on Sunday is not on the agenda, but a proposal will be drafted on trade policy, which will include talks with unions and retail operators on this issue.

Discussing the South Stream gas network, Orban said Hungary’s energy security requires that “what the Germans can do Hungarians should be able to do as well”. Germans had built the Nord Stream and they turned Ukraine as a potential source of danger “off”, as no gas for Germany can get stuck there. Hungarians, too, want the same thing, Orban said. “If there is a problem in Ukraine, Hungary should still have gas, and we need a pipe for this,” he said, adding that this is why the Hungarian government supports the South Stream project, the same way as it had supported the rival Nabucco project before.

The US entry ban imposed on Hungarian officials was not mentioned at the meeting. Orban said he did not know the names of people banned, but “when the Americans tell us, I’ll gladly say”.

Photo: MTI – Zsolt Szigetvary

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters