Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that the exceptional second-quarter 3.9% economic growth data published on Thursday is down to the fact that Hungarians want to work. So what is behind the performance of the Hungarian economy is not a one-off budget manoeuvre, not some selling of state assets, not a credit transaction and certainly not a new loan, but continuously expanding production, increasing labour and improving work quality, he added.
Speaking in an interview to public Kossuth Radio on Friday, he pointed out that since Hungary also belongs to a crisis belt, it is the job of the state to ensure work opportunities that the market cannot provide, and if necessary, several hundreds of thousands of jobs must be created.
The Prime Minister emphasised that in 2010, 1.8 million employees paid tax in Hungary and now this figure has risen to 4.1 million. He added that this must be further improved, since many people were still excluded from the "labour-based society". The goal is to have five million people working in Hungary, he added.
"We promised to create one million new jobs over ten years but now I see that we can exceed this; we can and must target a Hungarian economic model based on five million working people," he stated. Prime Minister Orbán said that it is important for the Hungarian model that the state creates work opportunities alongside private sector jobs. However, he agreed that the private sector’s job creation should also be supported.
The Prime Minister stated that the Hungarian model which is currently emerging is functioning well and producing results. He pointed out that the British are also pursuing their own model and are performing very well.
Talking about the new European Commission being set up, Prime Minister Orbán said he counted on good cooperation with the organisation. He stated that there are some who wanted to "make Hungary into a black sheep" because Hungary aims to build a democracy which puts public good first, as opposed to individual interests. This has brought about the desired results, namely greater opportunities as compared to other countries and a faster economic growth than in any other member state.