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Petr Očko: CzechInvest clients account for 70% of foreign companies’ R&D spending


20.06.2022
Petr Očko: CzechInvest clients account for 70% of foreign companies’ R&D spending

There are nearly three thousand companies in the Czech Republic that annually invest tens of billions of korunas in research and innovation. Several major clients of CzechInvest from, for example, Germany, France and the United States rank among the top companies in terms of R&D spending as they focus on innovations in the automotive industry, aerospace and laboratory equipment. Successful examples of these activities and their further development will be presented at a seminar to be held tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. at the Eli Beamlines laser research centre in Dolní Břežany.

“It is generally known that companies annually account for nearly 60% of all research and development spending in the Czech Republic. Foreign-owned companies achieve higher figures and, in particular, CzechInvest clients are estimated to account for up to 70% of spending on research and innovation. Support for foreign investment is thus crucially important for the Czech Republic and it is necessary to continue to support and develop these activities through CzechInvest,” says Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Petr Očko, who is also the acting CEO of CzechInvest.

Data from CzechInvest, which has long been focused on this issue, also indicates that Škoda Auto, Continental, Valeo, Honeywell International and GE Aviation Czech invest the most in research and development in the Czech Republic. A large number of the research centres in the Czech Republic can be found in the Central Bohemia and South Moravia regions. “We are pleased that the share of spending on innovation by Czech companies is increasing every year. The future competitiveness of the Czech economy must be based to a significant extent on Czech innovative companies. CzechInvest is helping these promising companies through, for example, its new Technology Incubation programme,” Petr Očko adds.

Companies can use several different grant and subsidy titles for their development towards higher-value-added activities in the Czech Republic. One of these is investment incentives, which CzechInvest administrates. Through incentives, it is possible to support the establishment or expansion of a technology centre and to receive cash aid in addition to tax discount relief. The agency has a very well-mapped innovation infrastructure and can effectively put companies that are interested in cooperation in contact with research organisations.

However, this is not the only topic of the seminar organised by CzechInvest together with the Centre for Technology Transfer of the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences at the ELI Beamlines laser centre in Dolní Břežany u Prahy. The seminar will take place tomorrow, 21 June 2022, from 9:00 a.m. During the event, the attendees will learn about foreign-owned companies that carry out significant research and development activities in the Czech Republic, as well as about different forms of support from various sources, tools for finding R&D partners and examples of cooperation between companies and universities.

The seminar will be attended by representatives of CzechInvest, the Association of Research Organisations, the Association for Foreign Investment and the foreign investors Honeywell, Valeo, Eaton and Hella Autotechnik, who will share their experience with doing business in the Czech Republic.

Participation in the seminar is free of charge upon prior registration HERE.


Media contact:

David Hořínek
tiskový mluvčí
+420 724 591 667
david.horinek@czechinvest.org

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