After signing a cooperation agreement in the presence of Minister of the Prime Minister’s Office János Lázár, the city’s leaders and businesspeople, the Prime Minister pointed out that Zalaegerszeg was the third municipality in which they had signed an agreement with the mayor, following on from Sopron and Eger.
He reminded his audience that before the 2002 elections, Zalaegerszeg was “one of the most dynamically developing cities in Hungary”, thanks to its low unemployment rate. Due to the change of government and the economic crisis of 2008, however, this trend did not continue.
“Zalaegerszeg must climb back to the heights it knew in the past”, Mr. Orbán said, and one of the most important preconditions for this is job creation and full employment, “and the wider national economic context does not rule this out”. The Prime Minister emphasised that the Hungarian economy is growing, and it stands on sound financial foundations; this brings with it opportunities for all Hungarian municipalities, and all Hungarian families, he said.
Speaking about the development programme for county-level municipalities, Mr. Orbán pointed out that one should not imagine that there are “uncounted money bags piled up in the office of Minister for National Economy Mihály Varga, waiting for anyone who visits to just pick one up and take away”. Every single forint must be valued, and every single forint must be well invested, he stressed.
Listing the individual provisions of the Zalaegerszeg agreement, he said that the HUF 5.4 billion development of Zala County Hospital will be completed.
Road development work means that by 2018 the Zala county seat will be accessible from the country’s motorway network via a four-lane road, thus Zalaegerszeg, too “will be fully integrated into the economy’s circulatory system”. Answering a question from press agency MTI, the Prime Minister said that Zalaegerszeg will be linked to the M7 motorway by the development of Route 76.
The latter will be completed by 2018, and by then construction will have started on the road connecting Zalaegerszeg to Vasvár, in the direction of the M9 motorway.
In answer to a question, the Prime Minister also said that in recent years a number of large automotive industry manufacturers have visited Zalaegerszeg, but “they have not stayed here” due to the underdeveloped state of the transport infrastructure.
Mr. Orbán also announced that the Government will spend HUF 1 billion on expanding and developing the business incubator in Zalaegerszeg and, depending on investors’ demands, an industrial rail link may be built to the city’s northern industrial park. A new intermodal hub needs to be established for the train and bus station, constituting an “intelligent transport” centre; a working group is currently analysing the precise brief and timetable for this. “We have the will, but first the figures must be clarified”, Mr. Orbán said.
The Prime Minister pointed out that Zalaegerszeg is the only municipality at county level that does not have a fifty-metre indoor swimming pool; therefore the construction of such a ten-lane pool with a teaching pool may start next year. Furthermore, a sports and recreational centre can be built in Alsóerdő, with funding of HUF 1.5 billion.
Finally, the Prime Minister announced that a working group will be established to consult with the Catholic Church on the construction in the city of a pilgrimage centre in honour of Cardinal Mindszenty.
Mayor Zoltán Balaicz (Fidesz-KDNP) said that road and rail construction projects are the most important ones for Zalaegerszeg, rather than “show projects and public paving works”. So far the local government has created a number of programmes and made a number of decisions which enrich the possibilities for micro and small enterprises, or for education and innovation. “We want to take further steps towards development, to create jobs and to support job creation”, Mr. Balaicz said.
The goal is a renewing and stronger Hungary, and a renewing and stronger Zalaegerszeg, the mayor stated.