Gov’t approves creation of new industrial zone
Separately, Foxconn plans expansion in Czech Republic
Ostrava, North Moravia, July 22 (ČTK) — The government has approved the creation of industrial zone Nad Barborou near Karviná in the Moravia-Silesia region, in which the state is going to invest up to 750 million Kč in 2016–18, Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said at a press conference after the cabinet meeting held in Ostrava today.
The total costs of building the zone are estimated to reach 1.2 billion Kč.
In recent weeks, the Moravia-Silesia region has attracted several investors. One of them is Hyundai Mobis, which is building a plant in the industrial zone Mosnov. After the Mosnov zone is filled up, the Nad Barborou zone should become a new location that will be offered to investors, Sobotka said.
The Nad Barborou location, covering almost 90 hectares, is a brownfield formerly used as a coal mine. After its conversion to an industrial zone, up to 2,000 jobs may be created there.
Karvina in Moravia-Silesia ranks among districts with the highest unemployment in the country. At the end of June, the local jobless rate reached 11.3 percent.
The government had already approved the subsidy of up to 750 million Kč for the Nad Barborou zone in October 2013, when the then government of prime minister Jiří Rusnok included it among strategic industrial zone projects. Building the zone was intended to be one of anti-crisis measures for Moravia-Silesia. The region has, however, never received the money.
The government today also approved a memorandum on cooperation with Taiwan's technological company Foxconn, which plans to invest about 2.5 billion Kč in the Czech Republic by 2018, Industry and Trade Minister Jan Mládek told journalists.
The memorandum is to be signed by Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka on Thursday, July 23.
“The memorandum expresses willingness to cooperate with the company Foxconn, which is going to make a new investment in the Czech Republic,” Mladek said.
Foxconn has been operating in the CzechRepublic for 15 years and wants to expand further, according to Mládek.
“We consider it (the investment) important not only due to its volume but also due to the region in which the firm wants to invest,” Mládek said.
Foxconn, which produces computers, notebooks and their accessories, among other things, wants to build a research and design center in the Czech Republic as the only center of its kind in Europe. It plans to develop fully automated solutions for its plants in Pardubice and Kutná Hora, to build data centers and to take advantage of its distribution channels in China to form a trading platform for exports of Czech products to promising markets in Asia.
Foxconn employs about 5,500 people in the Czech Republic at present. Its Pardubice plant employs about 4,500 people, 2,350 of whom are permanent staff.
According to the latest data from the Register of Companies, Foxconn CZ Group generates sales worth almost 109 billion Kč in 2012, up by 4 percent year-on-year.
Last year, Foxconn was the second biggest exporter in the Czech Republic, the value of its exported goods amounting to nearly 120 billion Kč.
The Foxconn group includes production company Foxconn CZ, service company Foxconn Global Services Division and Foxconn Technology CZ, focusing on the production and testing of servers.
The government today also approved a decree under which forest companies will receive about 280 million Kč for afforestation until 2020.
The subsidies will be paid from the Rural Development Program. The decree will take effect as of August.
“Over seven years we have afforested more than 3,000 hectares of farming land and there is still potential to continue. Our idea is that we could afforest slightly over 1,000 hectares of farming land,” Agriculture Minister Marian Jurecka said.
The afforestation of more than 3,000 hectares of land has cost €18 million (about 486 million Kč).
The Rural Development Program envisages a total of €3.1 billion (more than 84 billion Kč) to be paid to farmers until 2020, €2.31 billion of which is to be contributed by the EU.
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