Socialists want govt to reveal cost of “eastern opening” strategy
Budapest, July 7 (MTI) – The opposition Socialists aim to obtain details of government spending on its “eastern opening” strategy through a public data request, Bertalan Toth, the party’s deputy group leader, said.
The government has “wasted huge amounts” in taxpayer money in connection with these policies, including over 700 million forints (EUR 2.2m) in travel expenses and consultancy fees, Toth told a press conference on Tuesday.
The Socialists have made a written question on this issue to Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto and are also filing a public data request to gain access to contracts and reports related to the strategy, he said.
The Hungarian National Trading House operated from public funds, for instance, made losses of 2.4 billion forints according to last year’s report. This is the company that had placed 4 billion forints with the scandal-ridden brokerage Quaestor whose business associates are now under arrest, Toth added.
In response, ruling Fidesz accused the Socialists of “neglecting the interests of Hungary’s ventures”.
“There are more and more opportunities for Hungarian firms in the east, west, north and south, because Hungary’s foreign economic ties, for the first time after long decades, are again intensive and open in all directions,” the parliamentary group of the party said in a statement.
Fidesz added that the government’s eastern and southern opening strategies had promoted growing exports and thousands of jobs for the Hungarian workforce.
The foreign ministry responded by saying that the Hungarian National Trading House has helped Hungarian small and medium-sized companies close deals worth tens of billions of forints. The ministry noted that last year Hungary opened a total of 20 trading houses abroad, adding that exports were up by 4 percent in 2014 and 8 percent over the first four months of 2015.
In response to the allegations relating to Quaestor, the ministry said the brokerage had paid back the trading house’s capital.
Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters
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