1. Introducing the choice: Czech Republic
Analysing the pattern of the four Countries selected, the Czech Republic seems the best choice to be the new STL’s European plant.
Starting with an overview of the country’s economic profile, with a focus on the Electronic and Electric industry, the research capacity and the workforce’s skills, the following report will analyse the main reason of the choice: the lowest labour cost.
This, in fact, combined with a high level of foreign investment in manufacturing and R&D and a high skilled labour force, in addition to a large number of students involved in technical fields at Czech universities, can make the Czech Republic, comparing to Spain, Germany, UK and France, the best compromise.
Favourable …show more content…
Although it is still not yet at the same level as the other powerful western Countries analysed, such as Germany (6th among 138), UK (7th on 138) or France (21st on 138), Czech Republic has made considerable progress from the 37th place gained in 2014-2015, surpassing also Spain (32th in 2016/2017).
Similar, the Czech GDP, even though it is far from the highest (see table 1), had a remarkable increase in the period 2010 - 2015, 18.9%, well above the EU28 average of 13% that shows how dynamic is the Czech economy; moreover, in 2015 the total unemployment percentage was one of the lowest in Europe, stood at 5.1%, decreased of 2.2 percentage points from 2010 (Eurostat, 2015). Furthermore, according to the KPMG report (2016), the Czech Republic has relatively low external and internal macroeconomic imbalances and manageable levels of public debt and deficits. Minimal risk of losses in case of financial crises or related instabilities can be guaranteed by a stable and healthy banking sector and the latest rating by the major rating agencies was very positive, with A1 from Moody’s, AA- from Standard and Poor’s and A+ from Fitch (Czechinvest,
Analysing the pattern of the four Countries selected, the Czech Republic seems the best choice to be the new STL’s European plant.
Starting with an overview of the country’s economic profile, with a focus on the Electronic and Electric industry, the research capacity and the workforce’s skills, the following report will analyse the main reason of the choice: the lowest labour cost.
This, in fact, combined with a high level of foreign investment in manufacturing and R&D and a high skilled labour force, in addition to a large number of students involved in technical fields at Czech universities, can make the Czech Republic, comparing to Spain, Germany, UK and France, the best compromise.
Favourable …show more content…
Although it is still not yet at the same level as the other powerful western Countries analysed, such as Germany (6th among 138), UK (7th on 138) or France (21st on 138), Czech Republic has made considerable progress from the 37th place gained in 2014-2015, surpassing also Spain (32th in 2016/2017).
Similar, the Czech GDP, even though it is far from the highest (see table 1), had a remarkable increase in the period 2010 - 2015, 18.9%, well above the EU28 average of 13% that shows how dynamic is the Czech economy; moreover, in 2015 the total unemployment percentage was one of the lowest in Europe, stood at 5.1%, decreased of 2.2 percentage points from 2010 (Eurostat, 2015). Furthermore, according to the KPMG report (2016), the Czech Republic has relatively low external and internal macroeconomic imbalances and manageable levels of public debt and deficits. Minimal risk of losses in case of financial crises or related instabilities can be guaranteed by a stable and healthy banking sector and the latest rating by the major rating agencies was very positive, with A1 from Moody’s, AA- from Standard and Poor’s and A+ from Fitch (Czechinvest,