Annual business awards honor eight

A panel of ministry officials and business leaders named the top investors and business properties of the past year at a ceremony Oct. 26.

Eight companies, both foreign and domestic, were selected by a committee comprising members of the Industry and Trade Ministry, the Labor and Social Affairs Ministry, the Association for Foreign Investment, CzechInvest and winners from past years.

"Today, the Czech Republic is a country for high added value, demanding technologies and for research and development," Industry and Trade Minister Martin Kocourek said during remarks at the ceremony. "The Czech government is working hard on strengthening our competitiveness."

The four investor awards were based on 2009 measures of the amount of money invested, what sector the investment was focused on, the number of newly created or potential jobs and the convenience of the project to the public.

Honeywell, a company that designs and manufactures security and energy technologies, won the award for greatest innovation potential because of the expansion of its research and development center in Brno.

The investor of the year in the manufacturing sector was JOB Air Painting a.s., which won for its aircraft paint center in the Moravia-Silesia region. Atento Česká republika took the award for IT and support services for its new contact center in Brno, and Agrostroj Pelhřimov won supplier of the year for a contract for professional-grade lawnmowers it concluded with Japanese company Chikusui Canycom.

"We have to say this economic crisis looks like its behind us. We see new projects, and we expect an increase in production of 20 percent to 25 percent next year," Agrostroj Pelhřimov CEO Lubomír Stoklásek told The Prague Post, adding that he felt the environment was sufficient to continue expanding on the domestic market. "The long-term business environment here in the Czech Republic is good."

Business properties were awarded for originality of architecture, functionality of facilities, cooperation with educational and research institutions and cooperation with businesses in manufacturing and strategic business support services.

The award for high-tech business property of the year went to Incubators and Science and Technology Park of the South Moravian Innovation Center, a zone created for the support of innovative new businesses. The František Industrial Zone won for brownfield of the year for revitalizing a former brown coal mine into an area for new buildings and industry. The industrial zone business property manager of the year award went to Daniel Adamčík of the Ostrava-Mošnov Industrial Zone, and CTPark Ostrava won business zone of the year for leasing more than 33,000 square meters of space to new tenants.

Remon Vos, CEO of CTPark, told The Prague Post that, based on the leasing market, the country's aspirations to host more technology-oriented business were being realized, as companies that originally leased property for industrial projects were now moving to create more office space and technical facilities.

"They are not going to other countries. It's more that they are comfortable making this their Central Europe facility," Vos said, but added that it was important for the government to keep the ball rolling.

"They need to spend money on universities and make sure the Czech Republic continues to provide a talented work force," he said.

Cat Contiguglia can be reached at
ccontiguglia@praguepost.com