Hungarian government to divide economy, strategy into two cabinets

Budapest, July 7 (MTI) – The government has decided to organise its work around two government cabinets: an economic and a strategic cabinet in future, government office chief János Lázár said on Thursday.

Addressing his regular weekly press conference, Lázár said both cabinets would be headed by a minister and they would have both decision-making powers and preparatory tasks. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán will assign them the relevant policy areas, Lázár said. The reason for this move is to allow enough time to prepare decisions thoroughly by including consultations and promoting more effective governance, Lázár said.

Lázár added that the two cabinets would provide a forum for discussion of “some topics for which government sessions are not suitable”. The two cabinets will not be “chatrooms” but formal bodies of decision-making with “legislative relevance”, he said.

Concerning his personal position, Lázár said “it seems I will have more work than before, as I am involved in both cabinets”. He added that the prime minister was not planning to replace any of his ministers.

On another subject, Lázár said that the government would seek parliament’s approval on how to spend revenue flowing in from the sale of state farmland.

Lázár said a bill has been tabled to address this issue and a report will also be filed to parliament regarding an itemised list of purchases.

The farmland programme ending on July 31 has so far attracted 40,000 farmers, and 30,000 have bought land of less than 3 hectares each. State revenue from the auctions is expected to come in at around 270 billion forints (EUR 853m), he added.

Photo: MTI

Source: MTI