Törökszentmiklós can be found in the Northern Great Plain Region, in Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok County with a population approximately 23.000. This is a typical lowland type provincial town with both industrial and agricultural character with mainly cereals and fodder production as well as with fruit growing, cattle, pig and poultry breeding, grain processing, manufacturing and repair of agricultural machines.

As a human settlement this area looks back on a past embracing more centuries. The settlement which became fully depopulated for the beginning of the eighteenth century was repopulated by Count János Almásy who endowed the settlement with agricultural rank, as well, in 1720. The name and the history of the town had been closely interwoven with the Almásy Family, which built a nice manor house here and established one of the most famous stud farms in Hungary for English thoroughbred horses. The one-time Almásy mansion house with a protected park on 14 ha is to be found at Szenttamás, at the outskirts of Törökszentmiklós.

Among the famous buildings of the town belong the Calvinist church of historic character built in late Baroque style, the Calvary Chapel the internal decoration of which is considered to be the masterpiece of Kalocsa wall paintings, the main vicarage's Roman Catholic church named by the Holy Trinity.

The activities of craftsmen, plaiters as well as the exhibition of their wonderful products belong to the characteristic cultural life of Törökszentmiklós. Along with the old traditional conventions and shows there are new traditions emerging like the programme series of the dedication festival on Saint Mary's Day and the Szentmiklós Days and the merry-making of Whitsuntide. In the cultural life of the town the orchestras of the School of Music named by Zoltán Kodály and the Basic School of Arts as well as the Miklós Folk-Dance Group and the Folk-Song and Zither Ensemble play an important role. The material and intellectual heritage of the town has been preserved by the hundred thousand-volume library, named by Arnold Ipolyi, and the Collection of Local History. The Community Arts Centre is the venue of many colourful and variegated cultural events organized in the small region.

Industrialization and location of industrial enterprises generated a rapid economic development and, as a result, the town has become more and more of industrial character. Currently the most important industrial enterprises are: Claas Hungaria LLC.; IEC LLC.; Lindström Hungária LLC.; Natural Meat LLC.; Radar Holding PLC.; Semecs LLC.; Szigma B LLC.; Videoton Holding PLC.; Alox LLC.; Lasa LLC.; Referencia LLC.; Alföldi Gabona PLC.; EX-LEX LLC.

At Törökszentmiklós three elementary schools are maintained and operated by the municipality, while one belongs to the Calvinist Church. Besides obligatory elementary education there are programs for training in fine arts, as well as religious education, talent development and professional pedagogical services are offered.

The network of secondary schools in the town is represented by the Grammar School and College, named by Miklós Bercsény; the Vocational Secondary School, named by Elemér Székács; the Vocational and Technical Secondary School and College, named by János Lábassy.

Geographical location and conditions of Törökszentmiklós are of extremely favourable.

The town is surrounded by the marvellous landscape of the Great Hungarian Plane. The live and dead streams of the River Tisza to the north and the Alcsi Holt-Tisza to the east, respectively, are frequently visited by the lovers of water sports. A part of the Middle Tisza Landscape Protection Region is to be found along the side of the town.

This region is rich in small and winged games like pheasants, deer, grey partridges and hares. The River Tisza, touching the outskirts of the town shows almost the original natural beauty providing opportunity for summertime swimming, sport hunting and angling. The silence and calmness of the characteristic lowland type environment generates harmony and peace, making the contemplators calmed.

The public bath of town has five pools. With its medicinal water of 60 ^oC it is mainly recommended for rheumatic and gynaecological disorders and internal diseases. In wintertime the guests are expected into the sitting baths. The three-star campground on an area of 8500 sqm expects the visitors with green wooded park environment and places for caravans and tents as well as with log cabins and chalets.

In the Industrial Park, established in 1999, which is considered to be the economic driving force of the town, there is an up-to-date location environment provided for competitive enterprises both from Hungary and abroad.

The character of the enterprises is twofold, just as much as the agri-industrial character of the town. The alloy of these two, i.e. the tradition based agricultural machine manufacturing is a branch of driving force even today. The firm CLAAS is a leading one with its innovative activity, however, there are many other companies employing a number of semi-skilled workers in industrial branches that producing less added value. Besides domestic enterprises there are also multinational ones acting in the Industrial Park in which the new and well developed infrastructure is available for the enterprises arriving also in the future. Our aim is to accomplish the development ideas of the town through an integrated approach. This exactly means that the health care and medical treatment tourism activities as well as the Research + Development + Innovation activities of enterprises should be realized by our Industrial Park as a specification in a framework of long term.

The Local Government of Törökszentmiklós does its utmost for increasing the employment and strengthening the economic sphere in the settlement. The local government and the mayor's office provide all assistance in procedures for obtaining permissions through consultation and by shortening the time-span of such procedures. They assist increasing and improve the efficiency of administrative procedures through organization of personal meetings between the enterprises and authorities and get in contact with each other. In negotiations for obtaining development and employment subsidies they support the successfulness of enterprises' applications. They provide maximum detailed information about making use of different favours and subsidies granted. They provide for creation of flexible payment conditions as well as that of co-operation based on partnership. The town joins in by providing the ground and administrative advantages as well as by participation in undisturbed co-operation with authorities, respectively.

The strategic objectives of the town have been completed related to the coming 7 year period the fundamental points of which are as follows:

Investment incentive programme with the increase of employment: Within frameworks of the programme the Industrial Park of Törökszentmiklós will be further developed in which our intention aims at sale of a 20 ha free development ground for investors and to create such an enterprise friendly environment where the supplementary subsidies from the state provide an opportunity for infrastructural investments in the town. In the course of construction works and the operation there will be a number of places of work created in the service sector.

Rehabilitation of the city center: aims at the creation of cultivated townscape and the improvement of quality level of service.

Development of tourism and related services: A primary goal of Törökszentmiklós is to develop the 30 ha area of current public bath for a complex of relaxation and wellness by using the thermal water of the town which has been qualified for medicinal water.

Through the exploration of medicinal water which can be considered as extraordinary natural treasure, as well, our primary goal is to establish and operate an up-to-date multifunctional Rehabilitation Centre that is suitable to satisfy all requirements. Moreover, we intend to create a medicinal region aiming at international patient movement and the opportunity of establishing cross border co-operation for the application of medicinal treatment services. The reconstruction of the open air basin and the construction of another new one for swimming lessons, as well as construction and increase of accommodations facilities for utilization of qualified medicinal water of 64 degrees and the construction of a bike road belong closely to the programme. Our goal is to reach that the local service providers offering programs, spectacles and other services on the field of culture and tourism should work jointly, offering their services included in an integrated package instead of competing with each other. These leisure opportunities greatly contribute to the active relaxation of the residents of the town and the region. I have to mention that the plans supplementing the development concepts of the town are already in the preparatory phase and, according to our expectations, the realization works will be started this year. As a result of this, Törökszentmiklós could be the capital of domestic elderly people, the centre of those who are fond of natural way of living and hiking based on the medicinal water, and a favourite destination of pilgrimage for families with little children.

E-mail: torokph@externet.hu Web: www.torokszentmiklos.hu