[Czech Republic] Economy

[kokpit]

Originally Posted by Gummo

From Warsaw Business Journal
by Konrad Kiedrzynski

Political relations seem to be thriving as well. "The cooperation between our governments has been, is, and will be good," says Jiri Cienciala, the head of the business forum's Czech delegation and president of the Czech-Polish Chamber of Commerce. This is especially true of late, as the two countries seem to want to cooperate on the US anti-missile installation in Poland and corresponding radar installation in the Czech Republic. As the Czech Prime Minister, Mirek Topolánek, told the press after a meeting with Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski last week, the countries share a common view on this issue.

PRAGUE, Czech Republic — Most Czechs were against the country’s possible hosting of components in a U.S. global missile defense system, a public poll indicated Friday.
According to the survey conducted by the CVVM polling agency, 61 percent of Czechs opposed Washington’s proposal to locate a radar station

http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/20...pczechh070302/

Topolánek...
Kaczynski...

[cyriak]

global missile defence system is not popular in Poland either...

there are numerous US installations across europe and our politicians believe that if there is nothing of military value on our territory then in case of some future conflict USA wont help...

then why not the EU backed security? probably because there are many people that still remember 2nd world war... and until they die of old age there wont be even talk about European security...
plus US seems so far away - politicians are less afraid of loosing sovereignty
...but at the same time they need someone to tell them what to do (probably because they were all soviet trained or something )...
plus the media (even foreign owned ones) are not helping - everybody (it seems)tries to harm our interests - EU dears to threaten us with suspension of financing for environmentally harmful projects (well those are our swamps and forests and we will destroy as many as we please but why moan at EU for not helping us to put more concrete in areas they want us to protect is beyond my comprehension), ah and Germans are plotting with Russians again to build pipeline that does not go trough our territory("again" was used in reference to ribbentrop-molotov pact ) so Russia can cut of our gas supplies without also cutting off the rest of Europe...
adding coalition witch is difficult one to maintain (every week there are some kind of troubles either with militant peasant party (samoobrona - self defence) and their sex scandals or with the catholic nationalist party (liga ploskich rodzin - league of polish families) and their racist and homophobic statements... main coalition party is not helping their image much either because their sights are on the past (and their pockets) instead of future...
and the list goes on - it seams that we cant do anything and we are told its not our fault - its the others: the bad Russians and evil Germans and so on......
but US is another story - thy are our best friends god natured, just, honest, and republicans are conservative Catholics ( hurray! they listened to our Pope!, yeah down with Darwin and his evolution !! :P and yeah we want some oil for ourselves too
but i dont know why we are searching for it in Afghanistan must be some Nazi German, Communist EU or Imperialistic Russian meddling (it seams words nazi, communist and imperialistic are used more or less randomly by tabloids ) its not fault of good uncle Sam of course...
damn it pisses me off... and EU which we are part of (and have influence over its politics - it does not matter how small) is not even trying to have one foreign policy (but even if it had, our politicians would probably not play by the rules anyway)...
i hope we will eventually grow up to work with our neighbours instead of good uncle Sam from kingdom far far away...

[kokpit]

interesting statement, Thank you.
Yes, it's not easy situation these days and many new problems are looming, we have to believe we shall overcome...

[Qwert]

cyriak, I'm not from Poland or Czechia however I have to say I agree with you.

[Marek.kvackaj]

¨World financial Cities

[IMG]http://i17.************/2woy59x.jpg[/IMG]

link:HERE

[Marek.kvackaj]

GDP ranking cities 2005/2020

[kokpit]

^ interesting charts, thank you Marek.

[Marek.kvackaj]

my pleasure
Prague doing well , is only slightly over 1,2 mil population and is worldwide recognized city

link uder world financial cities is very interesting ...

[garriochio]

Thank you so much Marek for this fantastic data

[paku]

Great find Marek! Thanks!

[seattlehawk]

Numbers such as GDP only tell you part of the story. What about visible differences? As a traveler, how much of an economical difference would one feel when travelling to formerly communist countries such as Hungary, Czech Republic or Slovakia from Germany or Austria? Are their cities and towns on par with what you see in Western Europe? To put it as an American , is it like crossing the border between US and Canada or the border between US and Mexico?

I know the economies among Eastern Europe countries are not the same but from what I have heard, some countries including Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia have done remarkably well in the last 15 years or so and their infrastructure, public transport etc very closely resemble what you see in Northern or Western Europe.

[lukasHa]

You are damn right man. I live in Austria and when I'm travelling through former commie countries, I can see that their progress in the last 10-15 years is just amazing

[kokpit]

There are very big differencess when you cross border between Austria or Germany in Czechia... mainly if you go on main roads.

[lukasHa]

Originally Posted by kokpit

There are very big differencess when you cross border between Austria or Germany in Czechia... mainly if you go on main roads.

Yeah, but the progress is great

[kokpit]

^ depends on where, western borderland is quite poor...

[lukasHa]

Ok, I've only been to the east and middle of czechia... so maybe you're right

[Ketax]

Prague- More than three-quarters of Czech firms have experienced corruption within their business activities, according to a survey carried out by the business daily Hospodarske noviny and the Economic Chamber among 1,166 domestic companies.

Half of the respondents said they would give a bribe if it secured new orders to them. Four out of ten entrepreneurs polled confessed they have bribed for their company at least once.

However, the problem does not concern only public orders organised by the state, municipalities and regions. Corruption is an increasing problem in the private sector, the daily said.

Last year, public prosecutors accused almost 300 people of bribery. With half of them, courts decided there was enough evidence for sentence. Imprisoned for corruption were 21 people.

The Justice Ministry wants to pay increased attention to fighting corruption. A few days ago, the government approved a draft amendment that raises the severity of sentence for public officials to as many as 12 years in prison.

"Apart from that, the punishment for offering a bribe will increase to up to five years in prison," ministry spokeswoman Zuzana Kuncova said.

However, the daily points out in a commentary to the fact that international surveys show that the Czech business environment is getting better.

A World Bank research in 26 post-communist countries revealed that the percentage of sales allocated for bribes decreased with Czech businesses from 4.5 percent in 1999 to 0.6 percent last year.

The same trend was confirmed by interviews with British managers performed in 2005 by the GfK agency for Transparency International. The poll showed that business ethics in the Czech Republic is worse than in the old European Union countries, but better than in the rest of the new ones.

At the end of its commentary, the daily addresses those who witness bribery. The Economic Chamber's poll showed that many people were forced to corruption, but only few complained and demanded remedy, the paper said.

[Ketax]

Prague- Labour productivity in Czech industrial companies rose by 9.8 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2007, while wages increased by 6.3 percent, the Czech Statistical Office (CSU) said today.

The nominal monthly wage grew by an average 6 percent a year from 2000 to 2005, while labour productivity went up by 8.2 percent, statisticians said.

Labour productivity grew the fastest in the engineering industry (16.3 percent) last year, followed by the mining industry (13.7 percent). In contrast, productivity slightly dropped in the iron and steel industry and the paper industry.

Overall labour productivity increased by 9.7 percent year-on-year in full-year 2006. Statisticians calculate labour productivity as sales from industrial activities at constant prices divided by the total workforce in the industry.

The average gross monthly wage in the industry reached Kc19,388 in 2006. In 2000, it stood at Kc13,584.

Companies paid the highest wages to people working in coke and nuclear fuel production last year, followed by the energy sector and raw materials mining. In contrast, workers in leather processing and the textile industry earned the lowest wages, as usual.

The Czech industry accounts for around one-third of the Czech GDP (gross domestic product). In the European Union, the share of industry on economy is around one-fifth.

Staff numbers in Czech industrial companies decreased by an average 1.1 percent a year from 2000 to 2005 when demand for workforce in the industry started to grow again.

In the past twelve months, staff numbers in the industry sector rose by 1.9 percent. Roughly one in three Czechs now work in the industrial sector.

[kokpit]

GDP PPS figures for EU 27 after joining Bulgaria nad Romania (% of EU27 avarage)

EU25 104%
Greece 89
Slovenia 87
Czechia 79
Malta 77
Portugal 75
Estonia 67
Hungary 66
Slovakia 63
Lithuania 58
Latvia 56
Poland 53
Romania 38
Bulgaria 37
--------
Croatia 50
Turkey 29
TYROM 27

2007-06-28
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/pls...2007-EN-AP.PDF

[garriochio]

Originally Posted by kokpit

GDP PPS figures for EU 27 after joining Bulgaria nad Romania (% of EU27 avarage)

EU25 104%
Greece 89
Slovenia 87
Czechia 79
Malta 77
Portugal 75
Estonia 67
Hungary 66
Slovakia 63
Lithuania 58
Latvia 56
Poland 53
Romania 38
Bulgaria 37
--------
Croatia 50
Turkey 29
TYROM 27

Why did you post it now? Is it fresh? Source please.