Nordic IT firms seeking new business partners in the Czech Republic

18 Mar. 2009 | CzechInvest | Ten IT firms and clusters from Sweden are seeking new business partners among fifty Czech companies at a meeting held today.

At a meeting being held today at the conference centre in the Hotel Dorint don Giovanni in Prague, a trio of Swedish clusters associating more than 700 Nordic IT firms and four other independent companies are seeking new business partners among fifty Czech firms operating in the area of information technology and telecommunications. The meeting was organised by the Swedish embassy in cooperation with CzechInvest and the Czech ICT Alliance.

“According to the Czech Statistical Office, nearly 100,000 people work in IT in the Czech Republic, and their number is growing year by year. Dozens of well-known companies have chosen to establish development centres in the Czech Republic and a whole range of globally significant IT firms, such as AVG, originated in the Czech Republic,” says Alexandra Rudyšarová, acting CEO of CzechInvest. “Today IT comprises one of the key components of the Czech economy – last year ICT companies prepared the largest number of new investments in which CzechInvest participated.”

“Information technologies make up an important part of the Swedish economy as well. In comparison with the Czech Republic, however, Swedish firms must take into account higher wages paid to developers. And this represents an opportunity for Czech firms to offer their services to Swedish partners and to use a common business and development network,” explains Jan Fried, specialist for the ICT sector at CzechInvest.

In cooperation with the Swedish embassy,CzechInvest offered Czech firms the opportunity to participate in the seminar, whereas the Czech ICT Alliance performed a similar function. “The ICT Alliance took part in promoting the event. Besides that, we want representatives of the three Swedish IT clusters to look into possibilities of future cooperation on trade missions and on cross-border projects financed by the European Union,” says Michal Zálešák, COO of the Czech ICT Alliance.

The Swedish companies taking part in the Prague seminar are Enea, which develops software for networks; Proact, which specialises in services connected with data storage; Epicor Software Sweden, focused on enterprise software; and Banqsoft, a provider of specialised financial applications. The clusters present at the seminar are Kista Science City, representing 500 ICT firms operating mainly in the Stockholm region; InternetBay, which associates more than 100 firms mostly in northern Sweden and Norway; and Oresund IT, which associates roughly 100 firms in the resund area of southern Sweden and eastern Denmark.

The seminar was opened by Catherine Von Heidenstam, the Swedish ambassador to the Czech Republic. Other speakers included Mats Hedenström of Kista Science City; Oldřich Příklep of the company Gartner; Zdeněk Fous, CEO of IFS Czech; Miloslav Marčan of the Czech Association of Chief Information Officers; and Michal Zálešák, COO of the Czech ICT Alliance.