Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said Hungary's government aims to make the country a "winner" in the coming decade, just as it was in the past decade.
Speaking with Kossuth Radio from Ohrid, in North Macedonia, PM Orbán pointed to the many recent changes in the global economy and said countries that didn't adapt would lose to those changes. He added that a policy of economic neutrality would provide the necessary means and methods for Hungary to deal with the changes in the global economy.
At the heart of that policy, PM Orbán said, was not allowing others to "force" their intentions on Hungary and not viewing the economy through a "political lens", but seeing trends exclusively in the context of the country's own interests.
That means that we will take from the West and take from the East only that which is useful and sensible. Whatever isn't good, whatever isn't useful for Hungarians, we won't take, he added.
If Hungary commits itself to that path, PM Orbán said the country could establish a position in all conflicts that was in line with its own interests.
He warned that two blocs were in the process of being established, one in the West and the other in the East. Hungary will join neither, as it is in the country's interest to have "strong, deep" economic ties with both.
PM Orbán said Hungary's economic growth rate was between 1pc and 2pc at present, still putting it in the forefront in Europe, which "doesn't paint a pretty picture" of the other states. He added that the goal was to boost Hungary's growth to 3-6pc, in spite of the unfavourable circumstances, with the help of a policy of economic neutrality.
PM Orbán said a new Europe Union Competitiveness Deal could be signed around the end of Hungary's presidency of the Council of the EU, in November.