AmCham Membership Report 2022-2023: The Community of Next: Our community is as strong as our willingness to cooperate.

Business thrives on momentary advantages created by talent, op-portunity and technology. One of us moves the economy forward by doing something new, and the rest of us respond. That is the way national wealth is created. A step forward, and then many steps following to make many steps forward.

AmCham is a collection of companies and members. We would like that community to inspire each other, inform each other, and to provide the ambition and courage each of us needs to try new things.

That is why in November we began drafting a Letter of Innovation. We drew on the experiences and insights of many members to in-form the government and the wider business community of the new policies that would enable the country to take advantage of the tremendous change toward a sustainable economy. Since then, we have met with national, regional and local governments, with universities, and with other associations to explain those proposals. We believe we will see significant steps in the next twelve months in all three main areas– focusing public research investment on big bets, shifting immigration toward STEM qualified workforce, and reforming the land use process.

Then, in May, we held our second Digitization of Czechia session. Digitization is a tool that can deliver innovation. We would like to see the cloud link hospitals with data that improve patient care, and provides the hard numbers on which efficient innovation is forged. We would like to see more data collected and shared be-tween ministries, and more economic planning and investment based on, for instance, a tourism scorecard that assesses the real impact of international tourists on all sectors of the economy. or the forecasting of traffic flows and public infrastructure needs based on a digital model of land use. Finally, as a tangible symbol of the freedom necessary to innovate, we would like to see the gov-ernment unshackle people from a designated workspace, and allow them to work from anywhere they want.
What we most need to make this, and many other innovative steps possible, is you. Our community is as strong as our willingness to cooperate. Please join the rest of the many leaders within our Am-Cham to make 2023-24 another year of progress toward Czechia becoming the most innovative economy in Europe!