Implementation of every element of Modern Cities Programme to start by the end of April

The implementation of every one of those elements of the Modern Cities Programme will start by the end of April on which the government and the municipalities concerned have reached an agreement, the minister without portfolio for the development of county-ranked cities said on Monday in Kaposvár.

Lajos Kósa pointed out at the press conference held after consultations related to the programme that municipalities informed the government in connection with 47 programme elements that they would like to reconsider their contemplated developments as they would like to finance other important projects from this allocation or would agree to implement other projects from their own budgets.

The minister added he is open to renegotiating the contracts between the government and cities. These questions will have to be reviewed, and in this work he also wishes to rely on the help of Members of Parliament.

Mr Kósa recalled that the Modern Cities Programme extending to 2022 which contained 250 elements at the time of its launch and has an allocation of HUF 3,500 billion is the largest rural development programme in the history of Hungary.

The programme does not exhaust the country’s development possibilities, and as 60 to 65 per cent of the available funds originates from local resources, it stands as proof that opposition claims alleging that Hungary would not be able to make any progress without EU developments are not true, he stressed.

The minister told the press that, of the total allocation of HUF 3,500 billion, some HUF 750 billion had already been provided for cities. He said that HUF 70 billion had been made available for the purposes of the development programme of the City of Kaposvár which they named after a former mayor, István Németh. The Somogy County seat also forms part of the Modern Cities Programme.

Mr Kósa observed that the budget of the Németh István Programme had in the interim been raised from HUF 171 billion to HUF 185 billion. This adjustment is not due to price rises, but “has been caused by a great many things that were not foreseeable at the time of planning”.

Among the most significant projects concerning the City of Kaposvár, the minister mentioned