Hitachi to establish new company in the Czech Republic

“The investor is counting on production of plasma screens and flat-panel televisions to begin in the summer of next year. The company is thus responding to the increasing demand for such goods in Europe," says Tomas Hruda, CEO of CzechInvest. “Hitachi is planning to come here in conjunction with its supplier IPS Alpha, a producer of LCD displays, which recently announced its intention to build a new plant in the Czech Republic in which it will invest over 90 million euro and employ up to 2,000 people,” he adds.

Hitachi anticipates that by 2008 demand for flat-panel televisions will increase in Europe to 20 million units annually in connection with the expansion of digital television broadcasting. The plant in Zatec should turn out flat-panel televisions.

Sir Stephen Gomersall, Chief Executive Europe for Hitachi commented, “We are delighted with the approval of the land purchase contract, which is a major step in this project, and grateful to the Usti region for the warm welcome given to this project. Hitachi has a first class reputation for manufacturing high-quality TVs and we are committed to building on this by expanding our market share throughout Europe.”

The governor of the Usti region, Jiri Sulc, feels that Hitachi’s investment will bring a lot of benefits for both the Usti region and the Japanese investor.“We do not face any unsolvable problems. Attracting investors to the Triangle industrial zone near Zatec is our main priority on which the representatives of the Usti region have been continually working. We are resolving our current issues regarding transportation of future employees and ensuring the availability of labor in cooperation with employment offices and schools.Some specific issues, for example, improvement of the transportation infrastructure (completion of the E7 highway) will also be an issue for the next government," says Mr. Sulc.

”We expect that both projects we managed to locate in the Triangle industrial zone will be of a crucial importance for future development of the entire region. The number of workers required by these new projects as well as by existing investors in the Usti region is quite high.That is why we have already initiated a working group comprising all the key players in the region – the regional authorities, employment offices, towns and municipalities in the vicinity of the Triangle zone and educational institutions,“ points out Rene Samek, Director of the Investment and Applied Research Division of CzechInvest, adding: ”We have been working on a plan for the retraining of the unemployed and education of future employees so that the structure of the workforce in the region corresponds to the demands of new and existing investors.“

Hitachi, Ltd., (NYSE: HIT/TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company with approximately 356,000 employees worldwide. Consolidated sales for fiscal year 2005 (ended March 31, 2006) totaled 9,464 billion yen ($80.9 billion). The company offers a wide range of systems, products and services in market sectors including information systems, electronic devices, power and industrial systems, consumer products, materials and financial services.
www.hitachi.com