As for health services in particular, he said “there will be no substantive changes unless we increase wages further”. At the same time, Lázár said that state administration was still overstaffed and proposed headcount reductions.

Lázár also said that the government was planning to implement major digital and transport infrastructure projects.

E-government should be expanded and digitalisation accelerated, he said, adding that the government would start doing the latter process “in-house” with a budget of 200 billion forints (EUR 640m) between 2018 and 2020.

Concerning plans to improve Hungary’s transport infrastructure, Lázár said the government would set aside 2,500 billion forints and spend another 1,000 billion forints on the country’s rail network.

Republished with permission of Hungary Matters, MTI’s daily newsletter.

MTI photo: Máthé Zoltán