Archive: Business | Business

Russia tops the list of countries where Czech exporters would like to boost their sales according to an evaluation drawing on approaches for help to Czech institutions abroad. But Ukraine has slipped sharply down the rankings as tension continues in the east of the country.

The ministries of foreign affairs and trade have signed an agreement on cooperation in assisting Czech exports and promoting the country’s business interests abroad. The ministries have set up a new system of cooperation which includes the establishment of a Client Centre for exporters and investors and a network coordinating the business-related activities of Czech embassies and Czech Trade offices located abroad. The Foreign Ministry’s Diplomatic Academy and the Export Academy of Czech Trade will also provide special training programs in economic diplomacy.

The South Korean car manufacturer Hyundai is planning to build a new factory to produce headlights about 30 kilometres from its large auto plant at Nošovice in North Moravia. At the same time, South Korea’s Nexen Tire has just inked a deal for a gigantic investment in North Bohemia.

Czech power company ČEZ has paid a price for drawing a line under its Albanian episode and is now looking away from the Balkans and to countries closer to home as the target for its future investment targets.

The Czech Republic is preparing for a fundamental shift in its energy policy, Hospodářské noviny reported on Tuesday. Quoting the latest version of the official long-term state energy plan, the business daily says the country is set to make a switch from being a state that exports power to one that imports it.

US Internet giant Amazon has given up plans to build a distribution centre in a Brno industrial zone and is looking for other locality in Central and Eastern Europe, Amazon´s spokesman for the Czech Republic Karel Taschner has told the Czech News Agency. Amazon was promising investment of almost 3 billion crowns and creation of 1,500 jobs in Brno. Locals, however, expressed concern over increased road traffic which they consider to be beyond tenable already. The Amazon spokesman for the Czech Republic made clear that Amazon was still open to looking for further opportunities in the Czech Republic, given European market growth. One project is going ahead: the construction of Amazon´s distribution centre in Dobroviz near Prague, set to begin in the near future.

CzechInvest is enjoying a revival on the back of a surge of foreign investment interest in the Czech Republic with the agency saying that a lot of the prospective enquiries cover research and development facilities and not just assembly plants.

The average age of dollar millionaires in the Czech Republic is 51 and the country’s affluent regard buying companies as the most attractive form of investment, according to the latest annual Wealth Report produced by the financial institution J+T Banka and quoted in Thursday’s edition of Hospodářské noviny.

The Czech Republic is looking to expand cooperation with China following a recent reset of relations with that country. Two months after a ground-breaking trip to Beijing by the Czech foreign minister, the minister of industry and trade, Jan Mládek, has just visited China in an effort to boost trade, investment and tourism links between the two nations.

The mayor of the town of Dobroviz, Martin Saft, signed a cooperation agreement with developer Panattoni on Monday on the construction of a distribution centre for US company Amazon, Safr told the Czech News Agency. The agreement includes a pledge by the developer to build a local motorway bypass by the end of 2015, to modernise a municipal sewage treatment plant, and to contribute an annual one million crowns to the town.The investment is worth 100 million crowns and should pave the way for some 1,500 jobs. The distrubution centre is to be opened within a year. Panattoni director Pavel Sovička confirmed that preparatory work will begin this week.