INDIA

Škoda Holding will build a turbine-producing plant in India for 1 billion Kč ($46.7 million), a company spokesman told the Czech News Agency (ČTK) Feb. 23. The plant, which will supply the Asian market, will be operational in 2008. A large portion of the turbines that cannot be produced in India will be made in Plzeň, west Bohemia. The company expects continued demand for its services in China and India through at least 2011.

Engineering company Škoda Praha will modernize four units of the ČEZ nuclear power plant in Dukovany, south Moravia, for a cost of 2.1 billion Kč, the company announced in a press release Feb. 21. The upgrade, which should increase the capacity of the plant by more than 13 percent, is expected to begin this year and run through 2012. It will also extend the lifespan of the plant until at least 2045.

The Information Ministry got six bids on the two tenders to provide voice and data services to the government, an unnamed source told ČTK Feb. 21. The selection committee was scheduled to open the sealed bids March 1. The goal of the contracts is to better integrate government communication. The value of the contracts is worth 11.5 billion Kč over the next four years.

Troubled LG.Philips sold its Czech television-tube maker LG.Philips Displays Czech Republic to the Dutch CTP Invest for 1.12 billion Kč Feb. 22. CTP Invest CEO Remon Vos told reporters the new owner would guarantee TV tube production at the Hranice, north Moravia, plant only through 2008. But the company has plans to expand the plant and could double its workforce to 2,500.

State-run Czech Airlines (ČSA) got a certificate Feb. 23 to operate a new flight simulator, which mimics the cockpit of several Airbus planes. The simulator will be used to train ČSA pilots as well as pilots from other airlines. ČSA pilots previously had to undergo Airbus training in France, the United Kingdom, Spain or Tunisia.

The Czech Republic’s largest telephone company, Telefónica O2, raised its profits 28 percent last year to 8 billion Kč — a record-high take but still below analysts’ expectations. It now has 4.9 million mobile phone clients, still behind rival T-Mobile, with 5.05 million. Telefónica will focus on packaging its phone and Internet products in 2007.