The Czech Republic Takes Second in the Best to Invest Ranking

The Czech Republic recently received another prestigious award in the United States, placing second in the Best to Invest ranking compiled by the American magazine Site Selection. For the sixth time, European countries competed in two groups. The Czech Republic achieved success in the category of eastern countries, while Turkey and Russia were among those that fell in the ranking.

The placement of countries in the ranking was decided particularly by the number of investment projects, including both completely new investments and expansions of existing projects. CzechInvest, an agency of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, played a significant role in the Czech Republic’s result. In 2013, the agency mediated a total of 108 investment projects, which brought nearly CZK 48 billion to the domestic economy and will help to create more than 10,500 new jobs.

“After fDi Intellingence magazine named the Pardubice region the most attractive region in Eastern Europe for investors in March, the Czech Republic has again received significant recognition. Second place is an outstanding sign that we have something to offer investors,” says Ondřej Votruba, acting CEO of CzechInvest.

Slovakia took first place in the ranking. “We don’t take that as a loss, but rather as motivation to improve the Czech Republic’s investment environment. Over the past few months, we have thoroughly mapped our weaknesses involving, for example, the technically educated workforce, permit processes and our vision. We consider improvement of these areas in relation to investors to be a priority,” Votruba adds.

In the category of Western European countries, Ireland topped the ranking, followed by the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Germany. The judges took into account both the number of jobs created and the number of investment projects, as well as each country’s infrastructure together with tax rates and costs of doing business. The ranking was published in the May edition of Site Selection magazine.

The complete results are available here.