Mr. Orbán pointed out that for success joint national efforts are needed, he declared that the City of Budapest supports the project and that the parliamentary parties have “not withdrawn support” either, which is “not insignificant”.

The Prime Minister sees hosting the event as a huge undertaking which brings considerable risks, but he gave his assurance that everything would be completed by the deadline.

The Prime Minister pointed out that, owing to last year’s GDP growth of 3.5%, Hungary has a sound basis for hosting the event: the FINA World Championships is a very profitable initiative and an honour for Hungary.

The FINA Executive Director stressed that Hungary is a “home of sports” and expressed his admiration for the outstanding success of its swimmers and water polo players. Referring to the financial benefits mentioned by the Prime Minister, Mr Marculescu said that, according to estimates, a rate of return of two or three times the amount invested could be anticipated. He reminded his audience that the last world championships had been followed by 4.5 billion viewers on different platforms across 193 countries.

The event was originally planned to be hosted by Guadalajara, but the Mexican city pulled out a month ago for financial reasons.

This year the event will be hosted in Kazan, Russia, and in Gwangju, South Korea in 2019. A new bidding process will be announced for the 2021 World Championships, the hosting rights for which had previously been won by Budapest.

Source: Prime Minister's Office