Pardubice is the Most Attractive Eastern European Region for Investors

14 Mar. 2014 | CzechInvest | FDI Intelligence has announced the results of its ranking.

The results of the European Cities and Regions of the Future 2014/15 ranking were announced on Wednesday, 12 March 2014, in Cannes, France. The certificate for first place among Eastern European regions was accepted on behalf of the Pardubice region by Marie Černošová from the Pardubice regional office of CzechInvest, which entered the region in the competition. The Plzeň region and Prague placed immediately behind Pardubice.

The jury also recognised the Pardubice region in the category of strategy for supporting foreign direct invests, naming it the third-best Eastern European region in this respect. “Thanks to the renown of the magazine, which is part of the Financial Times media group, the results of the comparison will reach many potential investors and thus draw their attention to the region,” says Ondřej Votruba, acting CEO of CzechInvest. “The Pardubice region could therefore look forward to stronger interest from foreign investors in future.”

“This is a clear indication that our region can be seen by investors as strong and competitive. For that, we can thank not only the region’s favourable location, but also its skilled workforce and well thought-out investment policy, which we are implementing through development projects,” explains Martin Netolický, governor of the Pardubice region.

Last year CzechInvest mediated investments here worth more than CZK 5 billion, which will create 584 new jobs in the region. Besides successful recent investments, the Pardubice region’s strengths assessed by the fDi Magazine jury include major infrastructure projects such as the connection to the D11 motorway and the expansion of the University of Pardubice with the addition of the Technology and Knowledge Transfer Centre and the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, new facilities of the Faculty of Chemical Technology, and an increase of students’ international mobility.

fDi Magazine evaluates European regions from the perspective of their attractiveness to investors every two years. This year the magazine compared a total of 486 European cities and regions according to criteria divided into six categories: economic potential, cost of doing business, human resources and quality of life, infrastructure, overall conditions for doing business, and strategy for supporting foreign direct investments. The Pardubice region achieved success also in the previous European Cities and Regions of the Future 2012/13, when it placed in the top ten and its strategy for supporting foreign direct investments was ranked fifth by the jury. More information is available at www.fdiintelligence.com.