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In the words of Mark Twain, you should buy up land because they ain’t producing it any more. One might quibble with the accuracy of that statement then and now, because as the Dutch have amply proved land can be reclaimed. But the message, especially for the landlocked Czech Republic, holds good.

The Czech Republic has just been through its annual economic monitoring session with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Basically, the international watchdog on economic good housekeeping and prudence, often accused of pushing an overly free market agenda, looks over the books and government performance over the last 12 months. The IMF published its findings after talking them over with the government.

A raft of economic figures have come out in the last days giving a much clearer picture of how the Czech economy is faring in the first months of 2016 and going forward. On the one hand unemployment this week dropped to its lowest level since January 2009. The 4 percentage point drop took the headline figure for April down to 5.7 percent. But there are other signs that the fast growth in some sections of the industrial sector is faltering as manufacturers run into problems finding suitable staff and meeting orders.

The Czech Republic was a latecomer to the market for energy saving houses and buildings, so called passive developments. By most accounts it was Germany and Scandinavia that developed and ran with the concept in the early 1990s. But the Czech market has grown rapidly in the last decade and the country can even claim to be showing the way to neighbours such as Slovakia and those further to the East.

Around two weeks ago we reported on how various Czech groups were putting pressure on the Czech government regarding its stance over the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Agreement (TTIP), the deal aimed at paving the way for what might amount to a free trade zone between the EU and US.

TTIP, short for the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, is not a topic which makes many headlines in the Czech Republic or excites much debate outside the business community. But the deal, described as the biggest ever trade opening agreement ever, is now entering a crucial phase and some Czech citizens’ groups and NGO’s are calling for more answers about the evolving agreement and on the Czech government stand about it.

Space today is much more of a civil than military frontier and, with one eye on its proud tradition in aviation, the Czech Republic is looking to get a bigger slice of the commercial space cake. And one way that’s been mooted for that to happen is for the Czech government to revamp its space sector activities and create a Czech space agency.

A level playing field is one of those phrases bandied about frequently in business. But in sport itself, more specifically Czech sport, how level is the playing field there and what are the main flaws that can be found in its operations and functioning?

The Paris Climate Conference in mid-December produced broad global targets for the world to avoid excessive warming for the first time ever. And one of the main sectors that will probably have to deliver significant emissions savings for national and overall targets to be met will be the transport sector. The sector has not come up with significant savings so far and that means that the spotlight is now on fuels companies and vehicles manufacturers, among others, to deliver.

The Czech construction sector is a symbol of the country’s economic resurgence just as it was of the years of recession after the financial crisis of 2008. Last year the sector expanded by 5.5 percent compared with 2014 and the number of new contracts climbed by 3.7 percent with the number of building permits also up.