Representatives of CzechInvest have travelled to China in parallel with President Miloš Zeman’s visit to the country. CzechInvest is currently engaged in negotiations with 14 Chinese firms in the automotive, electronics and metallurgy and metalworking industries. From 13 to 23 May 2017, the agency’s representatives are visiting some of those firms and meeting with representatives of private enterprises and state institutions in the Liaoning, Fujian and Zhejiang provinces, thus continuing previously commenced negotiations on placing investment projects in the Czech Republic. Meetings with other, new potential investors are also planned.
“If we are successful in all of the current cases, that would mean investments worth up to CZK 60 billion for the Czech Republic within several years. Of course, not all of the negotiations will be brought to a successful conclusion; in other cases, we will manage to conclude negotiations in a longer timeframe, though in the near term we expect to conclude negotiations on investment project worth several tens of billions of crowns,” says Karel Kučera, CEO of CzechInvest, who during the trip to China is participating in part of the official programme of the Czech delegation led by President Miloš Zeman.
CzechInvest has organised several visits of the Czech president to Chinese firms whose entry into the Czech Republic is highly probable. Visiting representatives of the partner country at such a high level can have extraordinary significance for the success of the negotiations,” explains Ondřej Koc, CzechInvest’s foreign representative in Shanghai.
Since 2005, CzechInvest has arranged investments from Chinese firms in the total value of CZK 5.8 billion. The volume of such investments has grown significantly in the past few years. Through 2014, the annual volume did not exceed CZK 500 million. In 2015, however, it reached CZK 1.15 billion, followed by an even greater increase to 3.15 billion in 2016. The most significant Chinese investments arranged by CzechInvest in the Czech Republic include those of BWI Europe Company Limited S.A., Saar Gummi Czech and Yanfeng Czechia Automotive Interior Systems.