2007: Czech firms dominate in investments

Last year CzechInvest mediated for the Czech Republic 182 investments worth nearly CZK 71 billion. In terms of the number of new investors, 2007 was the most successful year in the agency’s history. “Projects of domestic companies account for more than 15 billion crowns. According to our statistics, Czech firms were thus among the most active investors in the Czech Republic last year,” says Alexandra Rudyšarová, acting CEO of CzechInvest. New investors in the Czech Republic last year undertook to create 30,598 new jobs.

“For the first time in CzechInvest’s history, domestic companies prepared not only the greatest number of projects in 2007, but at the same time undertook to invest the largest amount of money,” Rudyšarová adds. Last year CzechInvest took part in realising the plans of 55 Czech firms, which will invest CZK 15 billion in their respective projects in coming years. “The agency also managed to mediate orders from important investors for domestic companies. With CzechInvest’s assistance and thanks to our comprehensive supplier database, Czech companies last year concluded supplier contracts worth 1.235 billion crowns,”recalls Rudyšarová. “The meaning of this is clear – the competitiveness of the Czech economy is continually growing and domestic firms are ever more successful on the market.”

The relatively low volume of committed financing compared with 2006 is due mainly to the extraordinary scope of the investments undertaken by Hyundai and its suppliers, which resulted in record amounts in 2006. From the perspective of the financial volume obtained for the Czech Republic via CzechInvest, last year was the third best year in the agency’s 15-year history.

Investors building on their success in the Czech republic

Among the 182 projects in which the agency had a hand last year, 65% involve expansions. “This means that companies have achieved success in the Czech Republic to the point that not only do they not have a reason to leave but, on the contrary, are expanding their operations. Investors’ expansion of production in the Czech Republic is clearly the most important indicator of the quality of the domestic business environment,” explains Rudyšarová. “Particularly gratifying is the fact that in the great majority of cases, these expansions represent a qualitative leap and bring about investments in state-of-the-art technologies, services and research and development.”  

According to Rudyšarová, the large proportion of expansions in the overall number of projects demonstrates that CzechInvest has managed to build on its success of past years. “A large part of the expansions involve investors with which CzechInvest has cooperated over the years. A number of them originally set up manufacturing projects in the Czech Republic and today are adding development centres and other centres providing the most various business services, from accounting and customer service to software development. The agency’s decision to focus on existing investors and to enhance our aftercare department with the aim of creating an ideal environment for further expansion in the Czech Republic has proven to be the correct one,” says Rudyšarová.

Investment in research and development on the rise

Also with CzechInvest’s cooperation, 28 new technology centres for science and research are to be established here, as the same number of investors decided for the Czech Republic in 2007.  Half of them applied for inclusion in the national Framework Programme for the Support of Technology Centres and Centres of Shared Services, whereas the remainder chose the European Potential Programme. CzechInvest gained 13 similar projects for the Czech Republic in 2006.

“Technology centres serve as an example of how important it is to have the possibility to offer comprehensive support both from EU funds as well as from national sources. We are able to support a broad spectrum of projects, thanks to which the Czech Republic can receive more such projects,” says Alexandra Rudyšarová.

CzechInvest expects similar development among centres providing business services. Compared with 2006, there were 13 fewer such projects in 2007. However, this was not caused by weaker interest on the part of investors, but rather by investors’ waiting for the implementation of European and national support. A national programme (Framework Programme for the Support of Technology Centres and Centres of Shared Services) was launched in the first half of April and the European ICT and Business Support Services Programme will start in not quite three months. “Like the Potential Programme for development centres, the ICT and Business Support Services Programme will help us to obtain qualitatively demanding investments,” anticipates Rudyšarová.

Last year the greatest number of investors focused on South Moravia. In coming years 3,900 people will find work in the region in 40 new enterprises worth CZK 13 billion. The Ústí region ranks second with 31 projects. The North Moravia, Olomouc and Plzen regions each attracted 17 investors.

CzechInvest was established in 1992 and mediated its first investment a year later. Since then, it has taken part in 963 investments worth CZK 617 billion. Eventually, a total of 187,837 people will have found employment directly in projects mediated by the agency. Thousands more jobs are being created by related investments.

2007

TOTAL: 1993-2007

*) Number of projects registered in a national programme of support + the number of projects requesting subsidies from the EU. Projects requesting support from the EU are not included in the job figures due to a different calculation methodology.

**) In order to maintain the comparability of results with the period prior to announcement of new EU support programmes for 2007-2013, the overall statistics do not include projects requesting subsidies from the EU.