economic development aid
Since the mid-1990s it has become clear that the programme of prosperity in one’s native land, which was formulated in 1994, can be successfully achieved not only by supporting the building of educational and cultural identity, but also by operating an ethnically based (social) institutional system (representation of interests, local government, religious life, public life, civil society associations, education, public culture, science) and by developing the economy of the regions inhabited by Hungarians. By the turn of the millennium it had also become clear that the resources available until then – the 1-1,5 billion HUF allocated annually through New Engagement Foundation (Új Kézfogás Alapítvány) and subsequently, Homeland Fund (Szülőföld Alap) – had no significant impact on the development of underdeveloped rural regions inhabited by Hungarians.
By 2014 – the third Orbán government – the economic and geopolitical framework had changed. The entry of 10-15 large Hungarian companies in neighbouring countries was proposed as an important economic objective. In three neighbouring countries (Ukraine, Romania, Serbia) frequent dysfunctional state infrastructure and a lack of capital in Hungarian-inhabited areas and businesses were increasingly pressing problems. It was realized that Euro-Atlantic integration beyond the nation-state framework could make the Carpathian Basin an interconnected economic and labour market region.
After 2010 the largest programme in the framework of Hungarian Government aid policy was in the field of economic development. In 2012 the Ministry for National Economy prepared – as part of the New Széchenyi Plan – the Wekerle Plan, a growth strategy for the Hungarian economy on a Carpathian-Basin scale which aims to create an economic space that sees the Carpathian Basin as a single entity with the help of EU development funds. In this context, support for the organisational role of small and medium-sized enterprises in Hungary is crucial, and Hungarians beyond the borders are seen as strategic allies. Key sectors for cooperation include automotive and machinery, food, tourism and health, green economy, creative industries and info-communication. Regional plans were prepared and between 2016 and 2018 HUF 60 billion in economic development aid was provided to minority Hungarian entrepreneurs through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. This was followed by the launch of a 100-billion-HUF programme for economic development in Transylvania (Romania).
In Vojvodina (Serbia) the Association of Hungarians of Vojvodina announced in 2013 the elaboration of an economic development programme to counteract the possibility of easier work abroad and emigration due to the possibility of dual citizenship. The Hungarian Government provided HUF 19 billion in funds for the region between 2016 and 2018. In 2014 the Ede Egán Plan for the regional and economic development of the Subcarpathian region (Ukraine) was launched with HUF 15 billion of funding coming to the region between 2016 and 2019. In the framework of the plan 4,500 successful applications received aid up to 2020, helping to establish 3,500 new businesses. The Gábor Baross Plan was launched in 2014 by the Hungarian Economists’ Association of Slovakia with HUF 4 billion and 1,521 successful applications in 2017. The Kós Károly Plan, the economic development strategy for Transylvania, was prepared in 2016 and launched in 2018 with a pilot programme in the Mezőség Region.