AmCham Business Outlook: We cannot strengthen sectors unless companies can easily build new facilities and hire qualified people

AmCham member companies have met to hear what the future holds for businesses in the Czech Republic. David Marek, Chief Economist at Deloitte, guided us through the reality and outlook for the Czech economic growth with key macroeconomic trends. The Government has done a good job of reducing deficit, but another 1% or more needs to be cut. According to Jaromír Šindel, chief Economist at Citibank, for now, the assumption is that the Czech economy will continue to outperform Germany as the Czech industry, including the car sector, has done so far.

With Jaroslava Rezlerová, Managing Director at ManpowerGroup Czech Republic and Slovakia, and Martina Le Papoušková, Executive Manager, Finance at ManpowerGroup we dived into the reasons for the lack of talent in the Czech Republic, the most sought-after employee skills, or the untapped reserves in the labor market. The pressure on employers to provide flexible working hours, including home office, and salary increases will continue.

Flexible working hours are a prerequisite for obtaining younger workforce. Martina Le Papoušková, Executive Manager, Finance and HR Services at Hays Czech Republic addressed the mismatch between employer requirements and what the Czech labor market is
offering. Companies struggle to find specialists who possess a comprehensive understanding of their specialisation, and have an even harder time finding a person who combines that wider knowledge with soft skills such as communication.

Pavel Kliment, Partner at KPMG Czech Republic outlined data and trends in housing and its affordability, with the deficits of 5,528 flats for Prague and 4,198 flats for the Central Bohemian region. Brno and Southern Moravia generate an annual deficit of 2,100. Pavel Sovička, Managing Director at Panattoni Czech Republic and Slovakia addressed the issues related to the Construction Act, land use planning and permitting (and the efforts to digitize the process), including ideas on possible solutions. Construction permits have declined from 169,000 in 2000 to 77,000 in 2023- before the introduction of the new digital system.

'What is mainly missing in recent strategies is an acknowledgement that we can have a plan to strengthen sectors, but we cannot actually strengthen sectors unless companies can easily build new facilities within a modern economic infrastructure, and then hire qualified people to work in that facility', said Weston Stacey, Executive Director at AmCham CZ and moderator of the event. 

Thank you to speakers and member companies for joining us, and the Alchymist Hotel Prague for hosting this regular AmCham intel session.

Contact Gabriela Rybová at grybova@amcham.cz for more details.