Budget amendment earmarks EUR 158m top-up for cities scheme

Budapest, May 23 (MTI) – After an amendment of Hungary’s 2016 budget, a top-up of 50 billion forints (EUR 158m) will be available for developments under the Modern Cities scheme.

Lawmakers are scheduled to vote on the budget amendment in June, Ferenc Szalay, the city of Szolnok’s mayor (ruling Fidesz-KDNP), told a press conference on Monday. Szolnok, which has applied for top-up funding, is making financing available in advance, he added.

One of the projects planned in Szolnok is the Tiszaliget spa development, which is earmarked to receive about 3.5 billion forints in support, as well as an upgrade of the artists’ colony, a sports facility and the open-air swimming pool in the city, which will get one billion forints each, he said. There are also plans to widen the M4 motorway between Budapest and Szolnok by the end of 2018, he added.

In addition, a new 300-hectare industrial park is planned to be built and rail company MAV-Start has also received an order from the central government to manufacture 100 Intercity railway carriages. Production of the carriages could start in Szolnok in 2017, creating 250 jobs, Szalay said.

Akos Kriza, the mayor of Miskolc, in northeast Hungary, also told a press conference on Monday that Miskolc is looking forward to a top-up for development spending. “EU funding for which Miskolc could bid is simply not enough to support a complex city development plan,” Kriza said, adding that “the Hungarian state is well aware of this”. Miskolc’s biggest development plan is building a motorway to link Hungary’s border in the north with the city.

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