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1st Prize Modrice Central Trade Park
The Modrice Central Trade Park (CTP) is part of a unique project by a private industrial zone developer in the Czech Republic. It offers land suitable for construction, prepared production halls and now also office space for business support centres or technology centres. The fact that this park has attracted investors the likes of Andrew, Danaher Motion and Tyco attests to the correctness of this concept. Modrice CTP also shows the direction that industrial zone development should take.
2nd Prize Pardubice Municipal Industrial Zone
The quality and success of the Pardubice zone is attested by the fact that it has won awards in past years as well as the unflagging interest of companies and the constant influx of investment. This year the zone’s attractiveness was confirmed by investments from Toyoda Koki Automotive and Kayaba Industry.
3rd Prize Pilsen– Borska Pole Municipal Industrial Park
Almost no year goes by without the Pilsen - Borska Pole Municipal Industrial Park winning some kind of award. And so it happens again. This year Borska Pole was again successful in attracting major investors thanks to its optimum conditions. This was shown by the arrival of Daikin Industries and the attraction of projects with higher added value, such as the technology centre of Value Engineering Service and the design centre of Mercedes-Benz Engineering.
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Industrial Zone with the Most Social Benefit
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(criteria: newly created jobs is greater in regions with high unemployment)
1st Prize Koprivnice Industrial Park
Due to the high unemployment in the district of Novy Jicin, which is approaching 14%, the investments of Brose, Erich Jeager and especially Bang & Olufsen in the Koprivnice Industrial Park can make a major contribution to solving this situation in the region. Thanks to these and other investors nearly 1700 people will find work here in the coming years, which is why Koprivnice Industrial Park received fist prize in this category.
2nd Prize Krupka Industrial Zone
Krupka Industrial Zone was built thanks to the close cooperation of developer Investorsko inženýrská, a.s. and the Town of Krupka. This zone, too, lies in a region of high unemployment. The company Autokabel and others that have chosen this zone are creating at least a thousand new jobs here. Krupka Industrial Zone is thus included among projects of great significance to the region.
3rd Prize Rumburk Industrial Zone
Although the original idea to build an industrial site in Rumburk sprang up in 1999, due to the fact that the Rumburk Industrial Zone received its occupancy permit only during this past summer this is a relatively new, progressive project. Thanks to investors such as Jokey Rumburk, Benteler Automotive and others, more than 700 people will get jobs here, which will definitely be a benefit to solve unemployment not only around Rumburk but also in the whole Šluknov prominence.
Industrial zones should not be built without regard to the surrounding environment and should respect existing built-up areas and transport connections. Furthermore, industrial properties can have a certain architectural value.
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Industrial Zone with the Best Town Planning Solution
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Winner:
Cheb Industrial Park
The Industrial Zone with the Best Town Planning Solution was chosen on the basis of a thorough evaluation by an independent committee consisting of experts from academia and business. The Cheb Industrial Park was especially awarded for its well-thought out location between the most important transport junctions near the road to Germany. The committee was also impressed by the road connections and utilities for the sites prepared for investors, with preference given to manufacturers with higher added value.
Winner:
Triangle Strategic Industrial Zone |
This year, for the first time, a new category has been added: Brownfield of the Year. This category reflects the strategy of the Ministry of Industry & Trade to motivate owners of old industrial facilities and other unused land to recultivate and prepare them for further use.
The Triangle Strategic Industrial Zone is a unique project to regenerate an extensive site and is the first of its kind in the Czech Republic. The site includes a former military airport on land bordering the districts of Most, Louny, Chomutov and Zatec. This previously environmentally damaged land is now fully prepared for a strategic investor. The chief sponsor of the project is the Usti Region, which thanks to this project is now in a major position in terms of prepared industrial land of such an extent in all of Europe.
Winner:
Jaroslav Pojar, Department of Conception and Development for the City of Pilsen |
The professionalism of the manager of an industrial zone also has a great impact on the zone’s quality and success. For this reason this year saw the awarding of aspecial prize for Industrial Zone Manager.
An industrial zone manager can be a core employee of the municipal, city or magistrate authority or an employee of a company who performs the respective service for the owner of the industrial zone. This manager must be, among other things, able to professionally ensure the presentation, administration and development of the industrial zone, and to coordinate the further needed preparations for the arrival of an investor. The final selection this year was among nearly 30 candidates. Nominees were chosen after three rounds of evaluation by an independent committee: Hana Svobodova from the Department of Development and Strategy from the City of Pardubice, Jaroslav Pojar from the Department of Conception and Development for the City of Pilsen and Ceslav Valosek, consultant from the Karvina Regional Office.
“A good industrial zone should above all meet the needs of the regions and help solve social problems by attracting high quality investors who create new jobs and contribute to GDP growth in the Czech Republic,” commented Industry & Trade Minister Milan Urban in his speech during the ceremony:“The idea behind Industrial Zone of the Year is to award those who are able to build such industrial zones.”
“The zone preparation scheme contributes not only to attracting investors but also to developing infrastructure for Czech small and medium-sized enterprises. Private entities are also becoming more and more involved in building business parks and buildings,” said Radomil Novák, CEO of CzechInvest. “In relation to the new support programme under the Operational Programme Industry & Enterprise we also expect that the private sector will be able to balance out with the cities and municipalities in building industrial properties over the coming years.”
The industrial zones eligible for awards were those that received subsidies under the Industrial Zone Development Programme of the Ministry of Industry & Trade and CzechInvest, as well as zones where at least one investor from the field of processing industry, business support services or technology centres announced an investment within the given period. The evaluation criteria reflect both quantitative and qualitative factors in industrial zone development during the year 2003.
“Securing an adequate number of industrial zones is key for every country if it wants to succeed in the field of foreign investments and be internationally competitive,” commented David Brown, an independent expert from the World Bank:“State aid to build and develop industrial zones has been very successful in the Czech Republic. In recent years the country has managed to stop the impending failure of the industrial property market and there is now a good number of prepared zones and buildings available which are capable of attracting investments with high added value.”
Based on the Industrial Zone Development Programme of the Ministry of Industry & Trade, a total of 84 industrial zones had received support as of September 2004. Investors have already occupied nearly 70 % of prepared land, which is optimum. The remaining area is now available to dozens of interested investors who are currently searching for a suitable location in the Czech Republic.
This result is well above average when compared internationally. The experience from other countries show that the first investors come to industrial zones that have been prepared for investment on average from 2 to 5 years after completion.The timely preparation of an industrial zone thus enables the Czech Republic to become more and more successful in terms of the amount of investment attracted per capita out of all countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Thus far 200 investors have pledged to create almost fifty thousand jobs in supported zones. For each crown invested from the state budget into building industrial zones, private companies have invested 36 crowns into new production facilities.
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