Novak: 4th Budapest Demographic Summit to host nearly 70 speakers

Katalin Novak said the list of speakers would include Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, former US Vice-President Mike Pence, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, as well as the prime ministers of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Milorad Dodik, the Serbian member of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s presidential troika, will also attend, she said.

Scientists, researchers, religious leaders and the heads of civil organisations will also attend, Novak said.

The summit was organised by Hungarian pro-family NGOs around the connections between demographics and sustainability, Novak said. “The world is sustainable if there are children born and we pass the world on to them in a better state than in which we received it,” she said.

Like all developed countries, Hungary is facing a demographic crisis, Novak said. However, its government sees the solution in supporting families rather than in mass immigration, she said. Results of this approach include the largest growth in the number of marriages, and growing readiness to raise children, she said.

The biannual demographic summit, which was first organised in 2015, aims to showcase Hungary’s achievements and for Hungary to exchange experiences with other countries, Novak said.