GROWTH - Economic growth is similar in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, but Slovakia will be able to sustain its growth better because of economic reforms the country began introducing in 2004, Slovak Finance Minister Ivan Mikloš said in Prague May 11. Among the most significant reforms by the government of Mikuláš Dzurinda is the introduction of a 19 percent flat tax, Mikloš said.

ČEZ - Mirek Topolánek, chairman of the senior opposition Civic Democrats, said May 10 that he would sell the state's entire stake in power company ČEZ by 2010. ČEZ is one of the state's last large assets awaiting privatization. Topolánek's comment comes at a time when many leaders in the Social Democratic–led Cabinet are advocating keeping part of the power company in government hands.

ASSETS - Approximately 2 billion Kč ($90 million) that vanished from the Harvard Investment Funds, which had its assets stripped in the middle of the 1990s, have been found in the records of Slovak company Druhá strategická, Czech Television reported May 11. The creator of the funds, Viktor Kožený, is wanted in connection with a privatization scheme in which thousands of people lost a total of approximately 300 million Kč in the 1990s.

SALE - Mostecká uhelná společnost (MUS), the second-largest brown coal-mining company in the Czech Republic, has decided to sell a partial stake in its company, Mladá fronta Dnes reported May 15. MUS wants to sell around 49 percent of the company for 10 billion Kč.

DEBT - The Czech Consolidation Agency (ČKA), the state-run bailout bank, has asked ČSOB to return 8 billion Kč it received from the ČKA following its acquisition of IPB bank in June 2000, Mladá fronta Dnes reported May 15. IPB was on the verge of bankruptcy in 2000, when the government transferred its shares to ČSOB and, through the ČKA, picked up the tab for its bad debts.

INVESTMENT - Prime Minister Jiří Paroubek will announce an investment worth billions of crowns in an industrial park near Žatec, north Bohemia, before the general elections, Hospodářské noviny reported May 16. Paroubek has not revealed the name of the investor, but, according to the report, it is a Japanese electronics producer. The plant should employ several thousand people.