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The company Škoda Transportation has won a billion crown tender to modernize 93 rail carriages for the state-owned Czech Railways. The upgraded trains are to be used on the Prague-Hamburg line as of 2016 under a new contract signed with Deutsche Bahn.

With the first warm weather restaurants, pubs and coffee houses in Prague immediately set up outdoor eating spaces – from their own walled-in gardens that offer privacy to simply bringing out chairs and tables on the pavement outside the establishment where tourists can stop to refresh themselves and watch life go by in the city center.

A new small automated hydroelectric facility starts up on the Labe River.

The Czech Republic and South Korea on Thursday upgraded their business ties, signing a strategic partnership agreement. In the course of his working visit to the country, Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka expressed the hope that business ties could expand beyond the sphere of car manufacture, and cited defense, infrastructure and nuclear power as promising areas of cooperation.

Inspectors are planning to carry out checks on up to 13,000 restaurants in the Czech Republic this year. Hundreds of controls have already been conducted since the start of 2015, the website Podnikatel.cz reports. Indeed, one of Prague’s best-known establishments has just been shut down after startling shortcomings were discovered on its premises.

Although work ethics in the Czech Republic has improved in recent years, a survey just out indicates that employees spend an hour a day –on average – on social networks, dealing with their private mail or chatting on the phone. According to estimates this amounts to around 33,000 crowns a year in lost productivity per employee.

The Czech Export Bank has renewed loans for exports to Russia, which were suspended last December, due to the market situation in the country. According to the bank’s CEO Jan Bureš the bank board decided to renew loans after the Russian ruble stopped weakening in January and is likewise taking measures to minimize its losses in the country.

Head of state Miloš Zeman has made one of his most outspoken attacks on the Czech National Bank to date and says he intends to fill it with nominees that share his own economic views. That’s brought to the surface a latent debate over whether the Czech central bank is independent enough.

The Ministry of Agriculture is preparing to strictly regulate the sale of barrel wine in the Czech Republic. The step forms part of its move curb the market in bootleg alcohol and spirits. The proposed amendment seeks a complete ban on barrel wine imported from abroad.

Trade links with Ukraine and Russia continue to be promoted by the Czech state in spite of the greater risks for business with both countries. Minister of Industry and Trade Jan Mládek says the contracts there can often be more worthwhile and offer higher earnings to companies.