 High Tech
and IT: quietly growing powerhouse |
The Czech Republic has also successfully managed
to attract high-tech investors. Probably the best
example is Matsushita, one of the biggest greenfield
investments in the Czech Republic and the first
of its kind from Japan. "We have started production
of Panasonic TVs in 1997 with an output of about
200,000 TV sets. Last year, we have turned out 1.3
million, including our top line TV sets," says
Mr. Tadanori
Asahi, Managing Director of Matsushita Television
Central Europe
While he says the help of the Czech government and
especially the great cooperation with the city of
Pilsen were of major help, he sees the key factor
of Matsushita's success elsewhere. "Our achievement
is based on the fact that we got very high quality
people," he says. Matsushita has been so satisfied
with the success of its factory that it opened another
factory in 2002 in Pardubice, manufacturing mobile
phones. "We knew we could still get high quality
people which is the key in any business, I believe.
If you consider investing in the Czech Republic,
hurry up and get the quality people while you can,"
Mr. Asahi suggests.
While Matsushita is one of the top high-tech global
players, the Czech Republic is also home to many
medium-sized high-tech companies that develop top
of the class technologies and slowly establish their
products on the western markets. One of the examples
is Strom Telecom, an IT company developing and producing
high-tech telecom components. |
"The company has
been growing steadily since its establishment with
an average turnover increase of 15-20% a year,"
says Mr.
Nihad Hurem, CEO of Strom Telecom.
Strom Telecom is also one of the many Czech companies
that have started doing business with the East first
but as they continue to improve their technology
and business skills, they move more and more to
the West. "One of the main drivers to improve
our technology was to make it in accordance with
the EU norms," explains Mr. Hurem. And the
strategy paid off as Strom has managed to acquire
many top class telecom clients in Western Europe.
There is also potential for more growth, predicts
Mr. Hurem, as the company recently developed a new
packet-switched network solution designed universally
for voice and broadband services and has a complete
pre-production sample available in its laboratory,
looking for sales and marketing partners that would
help Strom more thoroughly penetrate the EU and
other western markets.
As the technology becomes ever more important, the
Czech government decided to support the growth of
knowledge-based industries through various support
programs. The most important is a set of new investment
incentives to cover hot areas, including strategic
services and R&D. "More and more companies
are interested in developing R&D projects here:
shared service centers, call centers, software development
centers and R&D centers so we are trying to
offer them as good an environment as possible,"
says Mr.
Martin Jahn , CEO of CzechInvest. To attract
these R&D projects and strategic services, CzechInvest
developed two types of subsidies: one for the business
activity itself and the other for the training of
people. "We consider the investments into people
and their training as the most significant ones,"
explains Mr. Jahn. |
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