Marketplace | All stories

A Czechoslovak two-wheeled engineering ikon is making a comeback. The distinctive Čezeta motor scooter was launched in the 1950s and soon developed an enthusiastic following. But by the 1970s the heyday was over. Now patents for the old design have been bought up and the scooter should go into production again as a top of the range electric vehicle.

The fate of a projected new gas pipeline link last week sparked a rift between the Czech Republic on one side and Slovakia and a series of Prague’s Central European partners on the other. The view from Bratislava is that the extension of the pipeline under the Baltic is a German-Russian plot to sideline Ukraine while at the same time damaging Slovakia and the European Union. We put the controversial project under the spotlight in this week’s Marketpalace.

The Paris Climate Change Conference is now in full swing with the flagship speeches of national leaders gradually giving way to the hard nitty gritty of detailed negotiations. The European Union has long sought to be in the forefront of moves to push through a comprehensive and ambitious global deal that will at least live up to the target of curbing climate change to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. But what role has the Czech Republic been playing as the EU thrashed out its negotiating position and how easy can it deliver on whatever

The Autumn edition of Prague’s flagship antique market has just finished with exhibitors of high priced paintings, glassware, militaria, and furniture in buoyant spirits on the hopes of high spending Czechs and foreigners coming through the doors. The optimism is fuelled by the fact that many Czechs apparently feel that they have a bit of cash to spare on an antique purchase as leaving the cash in the bank gives a poor return. And foreign buyers too seem to believe that there are bargains and investments to be found.

At one time it’s estimated that post Velvet Revolution Czechs had at least two jobs and probably declared only a small fraction of their earnings to the tax man. Times have moved on, but how big is the gray or shadow economy in the Czech economy and marketplace right now and what steps should be framed to counter it? A recent report suggested some answers to both those questions.

Small country, but a big power in nanotechnology. That was the message at a recent industry conference in Prague. Based on a handful of pioneering patents in nanotechnology, the Czech Republic is now a regional leader in Nano applications and technology and up there with the best in Europe. Jiří Kůs is chairman of the Czech Nanotechnology Industries Association and I asked him how he became interested in the new technology.

Czech companies, even the biggest of them, do not have a sizable footprint in the United States. The value of Czech exports to the US is approaching around 100 billion crowns, which sounds a lot but is probably a bit disappointing given the size of the overall market. But an initiative from a US businessman with Czech roots is looking to address that problem and has already got a handful of local companies up and running on US soil.

The Czech Republic has been chosen as the first location outside Israel for anti-hacker company CyberGym to set up its operations. The firm was founded on the experience of Israel’s biggest power company to fend off thousands of hacking attacks a day aimed at shutting down its power plants and the know-how army and intelligence experts. CyberGym’s vice-president Gilad Yoshi and the chief executive of its Czech operation, Tomáš Přibyl, came into the studio to talk about the expansion. I asked Mr. Yoshi first of all about how CyberGym was

Addressing problems in underdeveloped countries so that people stay where they are is now one of the key concepts for dealing with the immigration crisis. But how well is the Czech Republic performing as regards development aid and how easily can new programmes and projects be set up to get help to where it’s needed most.

In developed countries, such as the Czech Republic, medicinal drugs are often taken for granted by the patients who need them. But those drugs are also a big money product for their manufacturers and a potentially high earning commodity for firms who distribute them round Europe. Moves to limit so-called re-export of drugs are now being drawn up by the Czech Ministry of Health and look like pitting producers against these re-distributors. The final shape of the law being closely followed by the European Commission in Brussels.