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Successful women from different walks of life gathered this week for the fourteenth edition of the TOP Czech Women awards traditionally organized by the Economia Publishing House.

Czech airspace has been growing increasingly crowded in recent years. In 2018, air traffic controllers reported the highest ever number of flights over the Czech Republic, the Czech News Agency reported on Wednesday.

The Finance Ministry has announced that orders for the special “Republic” bonds, issued to mark the centenary of Czechoslovakia late last year have exceeded 3 billion Czech crowns. A second issue of the bonds has already come on the market.

The Czech economy is by some measures the most competitive in Central and Eastern Europe. But productivity has not kept pace with the rapid wage growth of recent years. And without greater state support for applied research and to encourage innovation, the Ministry of Industry warns, long-term competitiveness – already now “frozen” – could plummet.

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš wants to promote his country’s relations with India to a strategic partnership. He said so in an opening speech at the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit in Gandhinagar, where he also met with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi.

A direct flight line connecting Prague with Bangkok could be established by the end of 2019. The plan is the result of a meeting between a Czech delegation led by Prime Minister Andrej Babiš and representatives of Malaysian airline Air Asia, in Bangkok. If the plan goes ahead the prime minister believes it would help boost trade and tourism.

Tuesday's vote against Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal has raised fresh concern in the Czech Republic regarding the uncertainty that lies ahead and the possibility of a “hard” Brexit. According to the leading Czech business daily Hospodářské noviny a “hard” Bexit would result in a drop in direct and indirect Czech exports to Britain and the loss of an estimated 40 thousand jobs on the home market.

Building owners and housing co-operatives are demanding government help in enforcing and expanding their rights to collect payments from errant tenants or allow for their eviction, or force the sale of flats to cover debts. Many housing co-operatives across the country face bankruptcy, the groups say, due to tenants’ and co-owners’ failure to pay utility and other bills.

The sale price of a flat in Prague and the regional Czech capitals increased on average by 10.1 percent year-on-year at the end of the third quarter of 2018 to 56,800 per square metre, according to a study by the consultancy Deloitte.

Compared to the previous month, unemployment in December rose by three tenths to 3.1 percent, with 231,500 people being out of work, the Czech Labour Office announced on Wednesday. However, unemployment numbers remained the lowest for any December since 1996 and the amount of job offers actually saw an increase.