Strategic industrial zones prepared for investors

6 May. 2011 | CzechInvest/Ministry of Industry and Trade | More than 100,000 people have already found work in supported industrial zones

The Czech Republic offers prepared industrial zones in the heart of Europe for all types of investors, big and small, foreign and domestic. Where strategic industrial zones are concerned, this specifically means Žatec Triangle and Most-Joseph in the Ústí Region, Ostrava-Mošnov in the Moravia-Silesia region, Holešov in the Zlín region and Kolín-Ovčáry in the Central Bohemia region. The recent international conference titled “Industrial Zones in the Czech Republic”, which was held in Prague on Tuesday, 26 April 2011, focused not only on these strategic zones in which a total 1,539 hectares of available spaces await investors.

“Support for construction of industrial zones was one of the driving forces of the massive inflow of new investments at the end of the 1990s. At the same time, state aid succeeded in creating space in the Czech Republic for a new industrial-property market, so the role of the state in building industrial zones has now been completely taken over by the private sector. An exception is projects involving strategic industrial zones, which continue to have the potential to attract unique investments. Therefore, today we are concentrating mainly on improving already built sites in order to bring in new investors,” says Martin Kocourek, Minister of Industry and Trade.

“The composition of investments in the Czech Republic has changed recently and industrial zones are adapting to the trend. They can be used not only for big projects,” says Miroslav Křížek, CEO of CzechInvest, adding: “CzechInvest plays a key role in the occupation of industrial zones. Our objective is to convince investors that they will benefit from entering into these sites. This is evident in the fact that companies such as Hyundai, Solar Turbines and Škoda Auto have chosen strategic industrial zones for their projects.”

The state has been supporting the construction of industrial zones since 1998. “The Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic has supported the construction of 103 industrial zones, including eight strategic zones. Total occupancy of these zones is 70%, which is a very substantial figure,” says Petr Očko, head of the Department of EU Funds, Research and Development at the Ministry of Industry and Trade. “Today nearly 550 new enterprises, employing 100,000 people, are present on state-supported sites in industrial zones.”

CzechInvest is generally one of the first contacts for newly incoming investors. Within the agency’s aftercare service, it also provides assistance for foreign and Czech companies which want to expand their existing operations here. “We always recommend to potential investors places where they can locate their investments and, of course, we familiarise them with the advantages that are available to them. These include investment incentives, lower prices of land plots in strategic industrial zones and sufficient space for further expansion,” explains Miroslav Křížek, CEO of CzechInvest. “The main advantage is the previously mentioned perfect readiness of the zones with sufficient capacity and availability of connections and other services, such as the possibility of rail sidings. For investors’ decision-making, it is of fundamental importance that these zones are not encumbered with disputes about ownership.”

CzechInvest also ensures the administration of applications for aid from the Business Property and Infrastructure Support Programme. The agency’s employees further function as consultants not only in the area of financial support for zones, but also with their technical preparation, where they use their experience from previously completed industrial zones.

The “Industrial Zones in the Czech Republic” international conference, which was organized by CzechInvest in cooperation with the Ministry of Industry and Trade, is part of a communication campaign of the same name. The event featured representatives of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, CzechInvest, the Association for Foreign Investment, which was a partner of the conference, individual industrial zones, investors and other experts. The media partners of the conference were the weekly Ekonom, tha magazines All for Power, Development News, Konstrukce and SILNICE ŽELEZNICE, and the Czech Information Agency. MOre information is available on a special website at www.prumyslovezony2011.cz.

Currently offered strategic industrial zones: