The ministry of science and technology will recover a total HUF 110 billion (EUR 303 million) through the elimination of public interest asset management foundations (KEKVA), Zoltán Tanács, the minister, said on Facebook on Monday.
Tanács said his portfolio would take over the activities of the ZalaZONE and Élvonal foundations, adding that while the “redundant” foundations would be scrapped, the ministry would maintain their activities. He also added that scrapping the system would save the ministry an annual HUF 800 million.
According to Tanács, the two foundations have a combined HUF 62.5 billion on their accounts, while they also have assets worth nearly HUF 50 billion. “That is over HUF 110 billion – from now on in public funds,” the minister added.
Tanács said both Élvonal’s and ZalaZONE’s activities were crucial, the first focusing on the development of young talents and building world-class scientific teams and the latter having an automotive research and development infrastructure, which could provide a test environment for self-driving cars, drones and robots in future. “But all that does not require an unnecessarily expensive, not sufficiently transparent or controlled foundation model,” he added.
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