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The Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade, after consultation with the Finance Ministry, has recommended that state-controlled power company ČEZ take the lead in building new nuclear plants in the country. The ministry outlined three options for future nuclear development in its proposed action plan which was finalized on January 16.

Ski resorts in the Orlické hory mountain range have small reason to cheer. In addition to the lack of snow they are now facing fresh competition from the Polish side of the border where entrepreneurs are investing millions of zloty into state of the art facilities intended to attract an international clientele.

The Czech government is preparing to put in place its version of the so-called debt brake, a mechanism for raising the alarm when public debt as a proportion of national wealth starts reaching dangerous levels and calling for emergency remedial action.

The body that runs the Czech Republic’s rail network is ready to make a record investment this year, the business daily E15 reported on Thursday. This is good news for construction firms but passengers will see an unprecedented number of diversions.

The use of payment cards on public transport in the Czech Republic is set to expand markedly, slowly spelling the end of the cash purchase of tickets, Hospodářské noviny reported on Wednesday.

The Czech crown dropped from weak levels even further against the euro and dollar Monday. Some analysts see the Czech National Bank accepting the drop with a lower target exchange rate against the euro. But so far the bank is toughing out the slide and says no reaction is called for.

Organic food is still a luxury for most Czechs and although forty percent of people say they buy organic food items occasionally, organic products still make up only one percent of overall food sales. Agriculture Minister Marian Jurečka blames the high mark-ups that supermarkets slap on “bio” products as they are known in the Czech Republic.

One of the management veterans at the top of a Czech state company has finally been pushed out. Jaroslav Pantůček’s exit from oil pipeline company MERO is a clear signal that finance minister Andrej Babiš wants to make a fresh push to attain some of his goals for the fuels and refinery sector.

Transparency has not perhaps been one of the biggest features of the Czech health system, according to its critics. But the government says that a revolution in the hitherto rather opaque relationship between the main paymasters of the system – health insurance companies – and the hospitals, doctors, and others providing services to patients is now underway.

The Czech Republic’s spending watchdog the Supreme Audit Office has warned that incentives for the production of electricity from renewable sources of energy, such as biomass, wind, water, biogas and solar radiation, will continue to burden the country’s economy for years to come.