 Hot spot
in Central Europe |
The Czech Republic often tops various lists of Central
European countries in terms of foreign investment,
not to mention many success stories of companies
operating in the Czech Republic, from Renault, Volkswagen,
PSA or Ford to Société Générale,
GE, Matsushita, Vivendi, Vertex, Pernod-Ricard or
OTEC to name just a very few. "I am very happy
that now a new plant in the co-operation of Peugeot,
Citroen and Toyota near Kolín, is built.
I think that it was a very significant step from
the side of the French investors towards the Czech
Republic, and I am very interested to see what will
be the second, third, fourth and fifth one."
Says Mr.
Mlynár, chairman of the board of Generali
Pojištovna,
that is to merge with Zürich Financial Services
in four countries - Poland, the Czech Republic,
Hungary and Slovakia and looking at improving the
companies position on the market of corporate clients.
During the past two years, the Czech Republic attracted
FDI of USD 5 billion annually and these were mainly
large greenfield investments. Why is the Czech Republic
so attractive to many European, American and Asian
companies?
The first and foremost reason is the high quality
of the Czech workforce. More than that, wages are
five times lower than in Germany and even lower
than for instance in Poland. There is a good taxation
system compatible with EU regulations, including
laws on double-taxation. Transport infrastructure
is also very good although it still needs some improvements
and the new telecommunication system is now better
than the European average.
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"Our responsibility
is to ensure a quality infrastructure as it is the
most efficient way of attracting investors. Indeed,
if the roads are not good, investors will not be
able to access to the Czech regions and they will
not have the possibility to export their products,
asserts Mr.
Nemec, Minister for regional development
. "Our country has a stable political environment,
as well as a stable social environment, because
the number of days on strike is very low,"
points out Mr.
Špidla.
Furthermore, the system of investment incentives,
which has been created in cooperation with the European
Commission, is stable and functions well, making
CzechInvest,
the state agency formed to attract foreign capital,
gaining the title of the best investment agency
in Europe for two consecutive years. "To put
it simply, we have all an investor needs: good location,
good labor force and good infrastructure,"
summarizes Mr.
Martin Jahn, CEO of CzechInvest.
Mr. Tadanori
Asahi, Managing Director of Matsushita Television
Central Europe that operates one of the largest
greenfield investments in the country, concurs.
"While we have also considered Poland, Hungary
and Slovakia, the Czech Republic won on most important
accounts. The main reason was the geographical location,
which gives us a huge advantage from the logistic
point of view. The other reasons for the investment
were the stability of the economical and political
situation, as for example, the economic growth rate
and the inflation rate were very stable compared
with the other three countries we were considering.
And also the Czech government and the city of Pilsen
were both very interested in bringing in foreign
investment," he lists the reasons. "However,
the key issue was that we could get very good quality
people with high professional skills," Mr.
Asahi underlines. |
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