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Eta, the iconic Czech household appliances producer, lost its way but now appears to be on the comeback trail with a range of new designs and an expanded product range which once again seem to be finding favour with Czechs and Slovaks.

A large part of cigar smoking Czech multi-billionaire Zdeněk Bakala’s fortune could go up in smoke.

This Monday saw the start of the China Investment Forum in Prague, billed as a key platform for building future business ties. Organisers, the Czech-Chinese Chamber for Bilateral Cooperation and Prague Castle alike hope it will spur future Chinese investment. This, after the Czech and Chinese presidents met in Prague earlier in the year and signed numerous economic accords in Prague, which the Czech head of state, Miloš Zeman, estimated as worth 95 billion crowns (3.2 billion crowns).

Two Czech billionaires have teamed up in an effort to buy the country’s top brewery, Plzeňský Prazdroj, according to Hospodářské noviny. The country’s wealthiest man, Petr Kellner, and Pavel Tykač, fifth on the rich list, want to get their hands on the Pilsner Urquell-producer and other regional breweries being sold off by SABMiller.

The massive price differences offered by mobile phone companies to corporate clients, who can then pass them on to employees, and those charged to the man in the street have prompted one Czech council to act. It reckons the price chasm between corporate and ordinary users now comes to something like 90 percent of the final price.

Czech sales of Swedish furniture giant Ikea have climbed by nearly 10 percent in 2016. The biggest player on the Czech furniture market posted sales of 9.3 billion crowns, which is an increase of 9.0 percent on the previous year. The sale of kitchen furniture has been the fastest segment to grow this year.

The Czech auto industry continues to go from strength to strength, with cars produced in this country placing highly in their categories at the international level, Hospodářské noviny reported on Wednesday.

The Czech Republic’s biggest electricity producer, around 70 percent state owned ČEZ, has seen profits fall for the last quarter and for the first nine months of the year.

The Czech Republic appears to have patched up strained relations with China and at a major investment conference in the Latvian capital, Riga, it was again business relations that took the centre stage. And the Czech prime minister believes he has landed commitments that will help boost the Czech aviation sector.

Sales of audiobooks in the Czech Republic have been gradually increasing. In 2015, sales of audiobooks reached nearly 82 million crowns, while this year, the Audiobook Publishers Association expects sales to increase by 15 percent to around 100 million crowns (around 3.8 million euros).