An agreement signed by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Mayor of Eger László Habis on Friday includes provision for a four-lane express road to connect Eger to the M3 motorway by 2018.
At a joint press conference, the Prime Minister said that the agreement also includes the HUF 6.3 billion conversion of Eger’s swimming pool into a national swimming and water polo complex. Furthermore, in addition to reconstruction works already under way, the HUF 6 billion development of Eger Castle will continue.
Mr. Orbán told the press that the agreement further states that the Hungarian rail operator MÁV will hand over an area of nine hectares to the Municipality of Eger for construction of an industrial park which may, in combination with the Municipality’s own property, occupy a total area of twenty hectares.
Speaking of the development project – worth some HUF 50 billion in total – the Prime Minister said that the city had concluded perhaps one of the best agreements in its modern-day history.
Mr. Orbán pointed out that the agreement, which serves the interests of the residents of Eger and those of the surrounding areas, is the second in the Modern Cities programme, following on from Sopron.
Viktor Orbán also said that, in the wake of the changes that are now taking place in the world, in four or five years’ time we will hardly recognise our surroundings, compared to those we live in today. Such changes will be equally noticeable in the world economy, the system of global foreign policy, development policy and education.
“If we Hungarians fail to create a new economic policy, if we fail to make it clear that we need a new type of foreign policy, if we fail to modernise our education system, Hungary cannot succeed in the world that is currently taking shape”, he said. The Prime Minister emphasised that the key to the development of rural Hungary lies in Hungary’s provincial towns and cities. “Without strong provincial towns and cities, there will be no strong villages, and we must therefore create provincial centres of influence”, he added.
Referring to the short time within which the agreement had been concluded, he said that “The days of small fish and big fish are over: nowadays the fast fish rule the waters”.
In answer to a question, the Prime Minister said that the goal of the Government is to connect every county-level municipality to the existing system of express roads and motorways, and for motorways to extend as far as the state’s borders by 2018.
At the same time, in light of the difficult situation that has developed in Transcarpathia, Mr. Orbán asked every county-level municipality to go beyond existing twinning relations and act as patrons in helping the Hungarians living there.
Mayor Habis said that Eger is a symbol of heroism, courage and patriotism. He reiterated that a decision by Parliament had designated Eger Castle a national memorial site last December. The Mayor also stressed that the Government had assumed the town’s HUF 8 billion debt portfolio, thereby allowing local people to make ever more ambitious plans.