According to the survey of German foreign chambers, the Czech Republic is the second most attractive country in the region of Central and Eastern Europe for German investors after Estonia. Compared to last year’s ranking, Czechia moved one place up, ahead of Poland. The Czech Republic was in first place until 2019 when it was surpassed by Estonia.
This follows from a business survey of German foreign chambers, which is being conducted in 16 countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Over 1,300 companies take part in it every year.
According to the survey, the economy is going up. Especially in the manufacturing industry, most indicators show a positive trend for further development this year. The shortage of skilled workers is bothering companies as before, but labor costs’ growth has slowed.
Czechia continues to score in the criteria of „productivity and motivation of employees“ and „quality and availability of local suppliers“. Among other things, the state administration is rated the worst in the history of the survey due to insufficient digitization. A warning signal is that „political and social stability“ has seen the biggest drop in investment criteria this year. One of the chances for Czechia could be to shorten supply chains from Asia back to Europe.
Businesses in the Czech Republic assess the outlook for the economy this year significantly better than the current situation in a partial lockdown. Nearly 40 percent of companies see the light at the end of the tunnel, almost every second company (47 percent) expects a better future development of their business.
This positive trend is also confirmed by other indicators. As many as 55 percent of investors expect an increase in their turnover, while factors as exports (35 percent), investments (34 percent), and hiring new employees (36 percent) are expected to grow in about a third of companies. „If we do not take into account the decline in 2020, these estimates are basically at the pre-crisis level,” said Bernard Bauer, executive member of the board of the Czech-German Chamber of Industry and Commerce.
Entrepreneurs continue to complain about the significant shortage of professionals, which will increase in the coming years, as almost every second company views the development of their own business this year positively. The lack of professionals is considered by most investors (60 percent) by far to be the biggest risk for their business in the next 12 months.
Title image: In this picture taken on Tuesday, March 8, 2016, an installation designed for Lasvit glass maker by Maxim Velcovsky is seen at an entrance to an office building in Prague, Czech Republic. Lasvit is a new startup successful around the globe that develops the long tradition of Czech glassmaking in combination with contemporary technologies and design. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
