The sixth year of the Export Festival CZ was held in Prague
Prague, June 21, 2018: This year the Export Festival CZ welcomed participants from 36 countries, from 4 continents from all over the world in the modern premises of Olympik Artemis Hotel in Prague. The subtitle of this year’s conference section became the “Digital World” and the lectures focused on the development of a digital economy without frontiers and digital innovations that are transferable between all participating countries. In the exhibition section, the exhibitors presented the best of what the participating countries offer: apart from business opportunities, there are also country culture, art, gastronomy and tourist opportunities that can be attractively linked to business. This year Festival was held under the auspices of the President of the Czech Republic Milos Zeman and Tomáš Hüner, Minister of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic.
The meeting was officially launched by CzechInno as a member of the steering committee of the CzechInno Association and by the Secretary General of the Association of Innovative Entrepreneurship of the Czech Republic doc. Pavel Švejda. He thanked everyone interested in cooperation and also mentioned the indispensable development of the digital economy of all countries.
On behalf of Deputy of Foreign Trade Department of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic, Vladimír Bärtl, the head of Export Promotion Department Rudolf Klepacek took part in the festival. The Ministry of Industry and Trade is looking for opportunities to connect initiatives of individual businesses and institutions in the field of innovative entrepreneurship. He thanked the CzechInno Association for supporting innovative business in the Czech Republic.
On behalf of the deputy for the management of the Department of Economic Diplomacy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, Martina Tlapa, the director of the Economic Diplomacy Department Marek Svoboda presented at the festival. He emphasized that the Export Festival CZ meets non-European countries, which our business companies still do not know much about.
Introductory Word of the CEO of Czech Export Bank, a.s. for Ing. Jaroslav Výborný, CEO of Czech Export Bank, said Ing. Miloš Welser, the Director of the Export Finance Section of the Czech Export Bank. He underlined the importance of international cooperation across all continents, as well as the promotion of the development of the digital economy and innovative entrepreneurship around the world.
His Excellency Aulia Aman Rachman, Ambassador of Indonesia in the Czech Republic, expressed gratitude to CzechInno for organizing this business opportunity. Indonesia plays an active role at the Export Festival CZ because it wants to cooperate with the Czech Republic and other countries. Indonesia has one of the fastest growing economies. There are major changes, Internet coverage and business collaboration opportunities are expanding.
His Excellency Arbër Vllah, Ambassador of Kosovo in the Czech Republic, thanked CzechInno for the invitation to the Festival. He introduced Kosovo as a country with an emerging economy. He said that Kosovo no longer offers wars but seeks to extract the best of both natural and human resources and establish new business cooperation. However, they need more foreign support for their development.
Her Excellency, Rosaura Leonora Rueda Gutierrez, Ambassador of Mexico in the Czech Republic, praised the Export Festival CZ as a great opportunity to introduce the economic benefits that Mexico offers to trade. She said, “We have 128 million people who are constantly contributing to our growth. One of our principles is opening up new markets, simplifying the conditions for trade and strengthening relations with other countries. ”
His Excellency Israr Hussain, Ambassador of Pakistan to the Czech Republic, has introduced Pakistan as a country with an important world economy which potential is not yet fully exploited. “We want to trade 365 days a year,” the Ambassador said, calling on other participants to expand cooperation.
His Excellency Ahmed A. Swar Eldahab, Ambassador of Sudan in the Czech Republic, emphasized the need to support exports to the African continent. “The African economy is growing at a record speed and creating new business opportunities. Sudan has very good natural resources and developed agriculture. There are great opportunities in the field of pharmacy or information technology. ”
Mr. Chen Jianjun, Representative of the Ambassador and Charge d’affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Prague, presented business opportunities in China, which open its market due to globalization. “We are also trying to open up the market and protect it. Together with the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Trade Unions, we invite the Czech Republic to participate as actively as possible in the global exhibition Expo Shanghai 2018. The developed trade relations between the Czech Republic and China have existed for many years.”
Mr. Ihsan Yaseen Shakir Alawady, Chargé d’affaires a.i. of Iraq in the Czech Republic thanked the Czech Republic for its support to Iraq in its fight against terrorism. He said that Iraq takes steps to defeat terrorism by a democratic choice, and now there is a time of reconstruction. The Export Festival CZ is a great opportunity to support the development of the economy. Iraq seeks to gain strong foreign partnerships, opens cooperation and supports the private sector, cooperates with the world bank, and has noticeable results.
Mr. Oscar Paredes Loza, the Permanent Minister of the Peruvian Embassy of Peru, presented the economy of Peru as stable, with high growth and low inflation. Peru must be supported economically for damage caused by hurricane El Niño. He mentioned good cooperation between Peru and the Czech Republic, and both countries are complementing each other. For example, the Czech Republic cooperates with Peru in the field of engineering and telecommunications, Peru is importing fruit. The Embassy of Peru is involved in various events in the field of tourism and gastronomy in support of cooperation. He expressed the hope that if business cooperation continues, business initiatives will grow.
Mr. Georgi Stoilov, Business Council of the Embassy of Bulgaria in Prague, presented his country with an allegorical fairy tale about a prince looking for a hidden treasure. It was found by a young man who arranged and cleansed the beautiful, antique objects that filled the castle. “Bulgaria is equally beautiful and you can discover its hidden treasure,” Mr. Stoilov said to participants of the Festival.
After a short break, Ing. Frantisek Sindler, Director of Export Finance II of the Czech Export Bank, introduced the bank as a part of state export support. He also introduced the participants to the current activities of the Bank, which are aimed at supporting the foreign trade of Czech companies.
Tereza Šamanová, Executive Director of CzechInno, the organizer of the Export Festival CZ, presented other activities of the Association, such as the Cybernetics Revolution or People versus Robots, the Smart Business Festival, the project Visionaries, and last but not least the activities related to the Digital Innovation Hubs, Industry 4.0. One of these HUBs is also one of the partners of the Export Festival CZ – Technology Center of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. The activities of the CzechInno Association follow up the activities of the CEEInno – Central European Platform for Digital Innovation, which supports international cooperation in the field of advanced digitization of the industry and shares the latest information from the Czech and international environment. This gives other entities the opportunity to develop digital business and get information.
In the afternoon, territorial workshops – two territorial blocks of lectures with the subtitle “Digital World” (Digital Europe, Digital Africa, and Asia) within the Festival. News from Albania, Belarus, Bulgaria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, the Republic of Congo, Kosovo, Iraq, Pakistan and Uganda were presented.
At the Export CZ Festival also took place a series of organized business meetings – B2B Event, in which their participants could effectively establish a number of business partnerships in a very short time. During the last two hours of the afternoon festival program, almost 100 such short business meetings were held.
The Mexican Music Group Mariachi Azteca de Praga has performed during the evening part of the Festival. The Music Group was presented by her Excellency Rosaura Leonora Rueda Gutierrez, Ambassador of Mexico in the Czech Republic.
In addition, the Indonesian music group Arumba Angklung Grooup played with the traditional Indian bamboo instruments Arumba. Their performance was presented as a partner of a cultural program, such as the Embassy of Indonesia in Prague, by Mr. Punjul Nugraha, the embassy council of the Embassy of Indonesia in Prague. Indonesian culture also introduced the Kintari dance group.
In addition to traditional Czech delicacies, participants of the Festival had the opportunity to taste some of the regional specialties of the countries participating in the Festival (for example, Indonesian gastronomy).
The Export Festival in numbers:
- The Export Festival 2018 is the sixth year of the project
- 25 actively participating states¨
- 22 lectures by speakers from 16 countries
- 40 exhibitors from 22 countries
- 100 short business meetings – business speed dating within the B2B meetings
- In total, nearly 400 participants from 36 countries around the world accredited this year’s Export Festival CZ.
CzechInno is an interest-based association of legal entities based on the support of Czech innovation business and the author of a unique system of innovation support in the Czech Republic. The Association organizes the Visionaries competition, which aims to annually award innovative achievements in the Czech business, the Smart Business Festival and Exhibitions of Information and Contacts for International Trade called Export Festival CZ. Since 2017, it has been running a series of regional events to promote the use of elements of so-called Industry 4.0 in the companies called Cybernetic Revolution CZ. For these achievements, the CzechInno Association received Eastern European Elite Business Awards from the English Corporate Vision Magazine for Excellence for Business Support in the Czech Republic.
The general partner of the Export Festival CZ 2018 became the Czech Export Bank, a specialized banking institution established to support the financing of export activities.
The main expert partners of the Export Festival CZ 2018 were the Technology Center of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, the Enterprise Europe Network Czech Republic as coordinator of the network, the Association of Innovative Entrepreneurship of the Czech Republic, the Society of Science and Technology Parks of the Czech Republic.
Main Partner for Legal Advice: Gürlich & Co.
The media partners of the project were Regie Radio Music as operator of Radio Frequency 1, Europe 2 and BBC Radio and the Zet Multimedia Project, Empresa Media as publisher of Weekly magazine, Marketing Sales Media, Factor S, BusinessInfo, and Innovation Entrepreneurship and Technology Transfer.