There are cities where unemployment is between 3-3.5 percent; however, Nagykanizsa with its 7-8 per cent unemployment rate is not yet in the same league, and therefore creating jobs is the city’s number one responsibility, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Tuesday evening in Nagykanizsa in an interview given to the local television station.
The Prime Minister said in the programme of Kanizsa TV on the occasion of his visit paid as part of the Modern Cities Programme: a lot of young people leave the region of Nagykanizsa ”because they have no jobs”, and Mr Orbán therefore agrees with Mayor Sándor Dénes (Fidesz-KDNP) that creating jobs is the city’s number one responsibility.
To this end, it is essential to enlarge the existing industrial park by an area of some 500 hectares; the State will purchase the necessary site within the next year and will hand it over to the city free of charge, the Prime Minister announced.
The Prime Minister said: the city is physically "restricted”, and is unable to offer a single large industrial site with all the necessary infrastructure that would be required by a major large investor.
The Hungarian State will purchase the necessary area of 500 hectares in two or three stages, and a further unused area of approximately 100 hectares that is currently in the ownership of the Hungarian defence forces will also be added to the site. The State will hand over this area to the city "for operation and management free of charge” within the framework of a long-term cooperation agreement.
In the interview Mr Orbán pointed out that the agreement concluded with the city on Tuesday will also offer solutions to transport problems.
One of these problems is – though it does not directly concern Nagykanizsa – that the M70 express road does not connect to the Slovenian network of motorways as a dual-carriage motorway. This express road, which is also referred to as the "death section”, will be upgraded to four lanes on its entire length by 2018, and preparations are well under way, Mr Orbán said.
The Prime Minister said in the interview that work is continuing on the section of the main express road 61 bypassing Nagykanizsa, the construction of which was left off five years ago, and it will be completed soon. However, a further allocation of six billion forints is required to relieve the centre of the city of transit traffic.
Mr Orbán pointed out in the context of the planned road that would serve to bypass the city from the south-south-east: this project will be divided into two phases. The first one worth some HUF 4.5 billion will be completed by 2018, while the second phase with a budget of one and a half to two billion forints will be completed thereafter. However, "already upon the completion of the first phase, there will be a perceivable improvement in the quality of life for those who live in the city”, he added.
In answer to a question, the Prime Minister also said that Nagykanizsa, which is situated at the crossroads of important routes and at the gate of Croatia, needs a large conference centre and a hotel to serve its needs where the city could host guests "who are interested in the business opportunities of the two countries”. A task force will be set up for the implementation of these projects and the clarification of the details.
The Mura Programme, presented by Member of Parliament Péter Cseresnyés (Fidesz-KDNP) for the constituency will also serve to promote the development of tourism, as part of which tourism businesses would receive aid and a 150-kilometre-long bicycle path would be built in the Mura region. The calls for proposals for businesses may be published by the end of the year, while the bicycle path would be built by 2018, the Prime Minister said, adding that talks between Croatia and Hungary are already under way regarding the locations of new border-crossing stations.
In addition, Viktor Orbán said that a sports and event hall accommodating some three thousand spectators and a 50-metre indoor swimming pool, next to the existing swimming complex, will also be built; these projects will "equally serve physical education in the schooling system, the leisure-time sports activities of the residents of the city, and succession raising which may serve as the basis for competitive sports”. Following the approval of the construction plans of the city, the swimming pool will take around eighteen months to complete, while in the event of similar conditions, the construction of the event hall may be completed within two years.
According to the concept of the Government, "in every county-ranked city without exception” there must be such facilities for the purpose of accommodating communal needs. As the Prime Minister added in answer to a question, in the context of Budapest’s bid for the 2024 Olympic Games, "it is a logical assumption that if there are facilities like these here, Nagykanizsa, too, may be one of the sites – as there is a motorway – where Olympic events could take place”.