AmCham Business Outlook: The decisions Czech businesses make this year on investment in sustainable technologies will determine competitiveness of our product mix

Can the inflation stay suppressed?

Will our resistance to the EU Green Deal ensure Czechia remains a "montovni" economy as other innovative countries make the major- and high risk- investments necessary to develop new and sustainable technologies, and develop a renewable energy grid?

How much investment- and where- is really needed for us to make the sustainable transition?

What will drive our future prosperity?

For the past decade, increased household consumption has been the steady pulse that has lifted GDP. Can increased productivity per person outpace the shrinking of the workforce due to aging?

Can our GDP be driven by increased household consumption as the population ages if we do not make these investments?

How much is our immigration policy impacting our ability to be an innovative economy?

The debate addressing these questions was guided by AmCham President Milan Šlapák of RSBC Holding, and further insights provided by Ladislav Koubek of Visa, AmCham board members Jaroslav Škvrna of Deloitte and Sanjiv Suri of Zátiší Group.

David Marek of Deloitte joined Jaromír Šindel of Citi in providing a macroeconomic baseline for the discussion. One way we can make a big jump ahead is to move fast and first in developing sustainable technologies. Jiří Švejcar of Boston Consulting Group explained the investments business will need to make to compete in the green economy, and Petr Materna of Kearney provided a timeline for the transition of the energy sector.

The decisions Czech businesses make this year on how they invest in sustainable technologies and operations will determine how competitive our product mix will be in the next decade. If the Czech government cannot move forward on major energy infrastructure projects, and cannot close the deal on major Big Bet incentives to research, develop and manufacture key technologies for global sustainable, we could end up back where we were in 1990- at the low end of the global supply chain. 

AmCham Members can get their copy of AmCham Business Outlook for 2024 at bvitova@amcham.cz.

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Meanwhile, the share of total expenditure on research and development in Czechia reached to 1.96% in 2022, a decrease from 2% in 2021 (see the trend for 2012-2022 below).

Source: Czech Statistical Office

Also, in 2023, a total of 5,433 patents were granted or validated in the Czech Republic through the UPV authority. Among the applicants, foreign entities dominated, obtaining a total of 4,979 patents (among European countries Germany dominated with validated 1,340 patents and among non-European countries, the USA dominated with validated 771 patents).

Source: .Czech Statistical Office