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In times of boom and for selected fields of employment the Czech Republic has frequently looked East to supplement its labour force. A decade or two ago, the target was Slovak nurses and doctors. Now, there’s a system in place offering a supposedly fast track recruitment system for Ukrainians seeking skilled and not so skilled job for large parts of Czech industry. But the system has been beset by problems and there have been disagreements about how to go forward.

The coming 12 months look fairly positive for the Czech economy with growth still expected to be strong and some room seen for unemployment to slide even further. But the big headline event for 2017 is likely to be the exit from the low crown regime that’s been in place for just over three years now. The move itself and the way it is handled will have a major impact on trade, investment, growth and jobs.

A low cost high performance battery is commonly described as the Holy Grail for today’s intensive energy using world. And a Czech inventor believes he has come up with just that battery by applying nano technology to the way traditional batteries are produced. And to prove the point, the first production line producing those batteries has been launched in Prague.

No less than three government ministers attended an international conference about the role and status of Czech family firms this week. As well as the conference itself, interest has been sparked by the anomalous position of family firms in the country amid new moves to give them a clearer and higher profile role as many face up to crucial decisions.

Lithium is very much the metal of the moment as one of the raw materials used for making batteries for electric cars and many other applications for renewable energy. And its high demand and soaring prices look like they could help make the Czech Republic one of the main producers of the metal worldwide.

A strategic analysis of the Czech economy has unveiled a serious flaw: some of the biggest and most profitable sectors of the economy are in foreign hands and have an increasing trend of shipping their profits out of the country rather than re-investing them. And while the foreign investment has fueled much of Czech economic growth over the last 20 years or so, the volume of investments appears to now on the wane.

The annual Doing Business report published by the World Bank is a prestigious overview of which countries appear to be getting it right economically and why. Much of the focus is on the hurdles that ordinary business men and women have to go through to start and continue doing business in specific countries. But there was some confusion this year as regards the Czech Republic with some reports about the overall outcome saying it had improved and others saying it had fallen back.

The pairing of fraud and EU funds is not being heard so frequently in the Czech Republic these days with suggestions that the country has learnt some of the lessons from the fraught programme period ending in 2013 where abuse appeared to rife, supervision slack, and the European Commission resorting to the toughest punitive measures out of the tool box to try and remedy the problems.

Recent furore in the Czech Republic over the visit by the Dalai Lama and state awards have very much put the focus of attention on China and the strategic partnership that Prague signed up with Beijing at the start of the year. Questions are now being asked also about the surge of Chinese investments that were promised and whether the political price for those promised investments is excessively high.

Around a year ago I traced some of the achievements of the Czech Republic’s nano technology companies, many of which are making an impact on the European and global scene. Twelve months on, I went back to the source, chairman of the Czech Nanotechnology Industries Association, Jiří Kůs, and asked him how companies and key sectors are faring in this cutting edge part of the market.