Hungary’s military power must be effective and the defence industry competitive because in addition to guaranteeing the country’s security, it also serves economic growth, Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky, the defence minister, told a conference of the government’s defence supplier development programme. The government aims to double the share of Hungarian defence industry suppliers and see more businesses certified as NATO suppliers. The grant programme will be coordinated by N7 Holding National Defence Industry Innovation Company, he added. He noted that Hungary had signed strategic agreements on defence industry development with a number of big foreign-owned companies, including Rheinmetall, Dynamit Nobel Defence, Airbus Helicopters and Nurol Makina.