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Technologická Inkubace

Jan Michal: Creating an attractive investment environment while attracting key technology players

Investments
02.10. 2024
line-arrow Jan Michal: Creating an attractive investment environment while attracting key technology players

The recent Annual Conference of the Association for Foreign Investment showed the importance of the government agency CzechInvest. That is why we chose the topic of the investment environment as the main topic for an interview with the CEO of this agency, Jan Michal.

Article taken from Business & Government

As an export country, the Czech Republic is dependent on both domestic and foreign investment. The role of CzechInvest has changed over time, but bringing in strategic investments with innovative potential is increasingly desirable. Do we have a ready investment environment, but especially strategic industrial zones?

The CzechInvest Agency emphasises the creation of an attractive investment environment that can attract key technological and other players on the global market. We believe that it is essential to offer attractive conditions for such investments, such as tax incentives or skilled labour, and therefore it is good that the Czech Republic is working to speed up permitting procedures, prepare land for strategic investors and accelerate the building of infrastructure that meets the needs of modern industry.

It is true that recent experience has shown that it is necessary to have strategic locations prepared in advance where large investors can implement their plans. That is why a specialised State Investment and Development Company has recently been set up, whose task will be to acquire and prepare large plots of land, as the Czech Republic currently has a shortage of such sites. We do not want to interfere in the business space market, but the state is thus addressing the readiness for large projects that are too risky for private entities.

With the abundance of ready areas and combined with the acceleration of permitting processes, a simplified system of investment incentives, the Czech Republic’s geographical location in the centre of Europe and other factors, we want to become an ideal place for investments with high added value or new technologies that will bring not only new and more interesting job opportunities, but also long-term economic growth.

The agency’s role is important in structurally affected regions, where new investment can build on the growth of small and medium-sized firms. What are you doing to do this?

In each of the three structurally affected regions, we have dedicated specialists for the Just Transformation Operational Programme. Their task is to provide advice and information to local SMEs on training and support opportunities under existing programmes and, in cooperation with CzechTrade, on export opportunities. They also organise consultation days in cooperation with the National Development Bank, workshops and business opportunity fairs with the participation of other institutions.

At the same time, we are in close contact with regional and local authorities, with whom we continuously analyse the needs of the local business sector. This provides us with valuable data and feedback that allows us to have a good idea of the needs and conditions of the regions. We pass on suggestions for new support instruments both to the MIT and directly to the Ministry of the Environment, which covers the Fair Transformation Programme.

At the same time, in some respects, we prefer structurally affected regions in negotiations on the location of foreign investors because they can bring new opportunities – economic growth, jobs, and a reduction in regional disparities. The Ústí and Moravian-Silesian regions have the largest number of investment projects assisted by CzechInvest after the South Moravian Region. In cooperation with the town of Cheb, the Karlovy Vary Region and the State Investment and Development Company, we are also working to create conditions for the arrival of a strategic investor in the Cheb II industrial zone in the Karlovy Vary Region. This concerns not only the physical readiness of the land, but also the educational, social and transport infrastructure.

The aim of CzechInvest is to ensure that new investments, whether domestic or foreign, can support the retention or arrival of qualified employees and the development of small and medium-sized companies in these regions. According to a recent OECD report, the Czech economy has significant reserves in the area of connecting our SMEs to the supply chains of large international companies. Exploiting this potential would help us to benefit from synergy effects, to move up the technological ladder and to create sustainable, high-quality jobs.

Fostering entrepreneurship requires cultivating an environment for innovative start-ups. What services do you provide to SMEs?

I’m sure it will, and it will undoubtedly be very valuable feedback. This information will help us not only to optimise our services, but also to make the most efficient use of public resources and to improve the whole ecosystem for the development of healthcare production.

The CzechInvest Agency has been supporting the development of startups since 2011 and during that time we have supported more than 680 startups through various programmes and initiatives. More will be added, for example, thanks to the Technology Incubation project funded by the MIT of the Czech Republic, which supports innovative companies in seven progressive sectors important for the economic development and competitiveness of the Czech Republic: AI & digital, mobility, eco-innovation, creative industries, advanced materials and technologies, space and defence technologies, and medical and bio technologies.

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