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JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
investment incentives that were sufficiently motivating to
reinvest in the host market. However, in the case of investment
support, the result of supporting this reinvestment action is zero.
After the period of the investment conditions and criteria run
out, the company terminates the operation.
Yapp Czech Automotive Systems is another and the last of these
companies that have made a significant reinvestment action on
the Czech market. This company reinvested its capital of 246
mil. CZK in 2015 (CzechInvest, 2019).
Based on statistic of Czech National Bank the inflow of Chinese
capital decreased at 5.79 bil. CZK in 2015. In 2016, increased
rapidly to the level 12.51 bil. CZK. Last current data show that
the new capital inflow from China was around 7 bil. CZK in
2017 and the final stock of Chinese investment in 2017 was 23
bil. CZK. (Czech National Bank, 2019).
From the point of view of CzechInvest projects (2019), China
was the largest investor in FDI in 2018 in terms of investment
and new jobs created. In the period 1993 - 2017, the investment
amounted to 6.67 bil. CZK. Resp. 29% of all Chinese investment
(including reinvested capital) represents supported projects by
the Czech system of investment incentives. The most significant
increase could be seen in 2018 (3.7 bil. CZK). Thus, in 2018,
China outpaced traditionally active investors from Germany,
Japan and Korea.
Only Czech companies invested more.
The
remaining two-thirds of China's investment goes to core regions
that are not linked to investment incentives. Due to the aim of
investment incentives is to reduce the regional disparities of the
core-periphery areas.
In general, investment has grown rapidly following the
establishment of a strategic partnership between the Czech and
Chinese economy, and although the Czech Republic is going
through a period when the unemployment rate is well below
NAIRU (Czech Statistical Office, 2019), Chinese investors are
still growing. These projects are connected with higher value
added than in the past. It means mainly production and
development projects, not acquisitions (CzechInvest, 2019).
Although Czech Republic has been attracting increasing number
of Chinese investors after strengthening the Czech-Chinese ties,
the amount has not been as much as expected. By the end of
2016, Czech president Zeman announced that investment from
China were about to reach 50 bil. CZK which was unprecedented
on the market of the size of Czech Republic however, according
to the Czech Central Bank the actual amount was only 750
million USD, and the year after was less than half of that figure
(Czech News Agency, 2016).
Other major investments (beyond CzechInvest's responsibility)
include the acquisition of
China Energy Company Limited
(
CEFC). An important investment in September 2017 was the
establishment of a branch of the Chinese bank ICBC in the
Czech Republic (Czech National Bank, 2019).
The most
prominent Chinese investor overall is the private-owned
conglomerate CEFC that established its European base in Prague
in 2015. It concentrated on collecting assets and it has been
active in many fields, such as oil and gas trade, real estate,
logistics, finance, tourism, infrastructure and others (Debiec and
Jakóbowski, 2018).
4 Conclusion
China experienced a change in the perception of Czech Republic
especially after its accession to European Union in 2004.
Currently, Czech Republic and China have been enjoying a
stronger relationship with the focus on the economic cooperation
based on defining the relevant policy framework in top-level
visits in recent years,
The Czech Republic benefits from its geographical location,
industrial tradition and good production network with other
European Union countries. China's investments were
predominantly in the form of capital inputs and acquisitions,
which for the most part do not participate in building greenfield
sites and job creation.
However, Chinese investment in the Czech Republic remains
relatively low, also in comparison with investments from other
Asian countries such as Japan, Korea or Taiwan. Although
Chinese investment in the Czech Republic and Central Europe
has grown very much lately, the largest investors still come from
the European Union (De Castro et al. 2017).
During the exanimated period 1993 to 2017, 29% of all Chinese
capital on the Czech market were granted with the investment
incentives. This ratio is not negligible however it also shows that
majority of Chinese investment has not been able to apply for
the financial support from Czech government. The reasons lie
behind their localization in the regions, especially Central
Bohemia and capital Prague, that are not included in the
investment system. Moreover, these investors are concentrated in
the sectors, such as tourism, infrastructure or for example real
estate, that are also not applicable for the incentives.
In view of current situation of the Czech labor market with the
characteristic of experiencing period of unemployment rate
below NAIRU and consequent inflation gap, the topic of
investment incentives requiring new jobs creation becomes even
more debatable. This situation creates even higher pressure on
the local labor market and increase attractiveness for the foreign
labor and thus the immigration from expecially third country
nations.
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