Prague has experienced its 3rd Export Festival CZ 2015
Between 17th – 18th June 2015, in Prague Congress Centre has taken its place the third annual Export Festival CZ, which is a successful presentation, informational and contact event focused on exports support and promoting of international business cooperation. The Festival has been, during its two days, visited by almost 800 participants from 35 countries, who had opportunity to experience rich conference programme including information about exports support, news about trade cooperation with foreign territories as well as about export success stories of Czech enterprises. Within its exposition sections, the participants of the Festival obtained pro-export consultancy, important information about the current economic situation in the foreign territories and get inspired by the cultural or touristic highlights as well as to taste exotic specialities. The very news of this annual Festival, positively welcomed by its participants, was the series of organised B2B matchmaking meetings.
The Festival has been opened by Minister of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic Mr Jan Mládek, who pointed out in the beginning of his speech: “I am glad to have the opportunity to participate in this year’s Export Festival CZ, as at the successfully developing event dedicated for the Czech exporters as well as for all those, who are interested in foreign trade cooperation – even more, as this happens in moment, when we can with our growing self-confidence look back to the successes of Czech exports in the last months,” Mr Minister said, and further added: “The Czech economy is growing and it is obvious that this is due to the growing volume of our exports. It is probable that we are leading towards our new record and it is necessary to encourage the Czech exporters in their activities and namely in their penetration to the new territories.”
His speech has been followed by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic Mr Martin Tlapa, who continued: “We cannot rely on that the growth thanks to the exports will be effortless, we have to help the Czech exporters, among the other, with searching for new markets. One of the contributions of Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the Map of global sectoral opportunities, which we created this year together with our partners and which will enable to Czech exporters to look for the global opportunities with high growth potential,” reiterated Mr Tlapa. “I also appreciate to see so many of ambassadors and representatives of the diplomatic corps of the foreign countries in the Czech Republic here. Your presence is very important for us, as you can offer ideas, how to improve our mutual cooperation,” further referred Mr Tlapa.
At the opening session of the Festival, altogether ten ambassadors of foreign countries competent for the territory of the Czech Republic have brought their opening speeches.
„I would like to express my gratitude to the organisers of the Export Festival, who successfully created a platform not only for bilateral, but also for multilateral economic cooperation,“ started the block of present ambassadors His Excellency Mr Farid Shafiyev, Ambssador or the Republic of Azerbaijan to the Czech Republic.
„For me, it is a very important moment to be here today. During the last week, we have closed in Brussels an important summit between the EU and the countries of Latin America, which has to lead to strengthening of the cooperation between the European and Latinoamerican countries and promoting of exports, investment and commercial exchange in general. Therefore, this Export Festival is being held in the relevant times, when the economic relations between Europe and Latin America, including the Republic of Dominicana, are getting stronger than ever before. I wish a large success to this event,” His Excellency Mr Alejandro Gonzáles Pons, the ambassador of Republic of Dominicana in Brussels emphasized.
„It gives me a great honor to participate at this event. I would like to express my gratitude to the organisers of this Festival as it reflects the main points of the Export strategy of the Czech Republic and helps the Czech business to penetrate or to connect with the new markets. I would like to assure you, that, in spite of the last four tough years, Egypt remains a reliable partner,“ Her Excellency Ms Amany Fahmy, Ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt in the Czech Republic said.
„I would like to present my country as a stable and open economy with one of the best climate for doing business in the world. Chile is safe, connective, competitive and transparent,“ His Excellency Mr Rodrigo Gaete Vidal, Ambassador of Chile in Prague, encouraged the present auditorium to do business with his country.
„We’re happy to be here, South Africa is a great place to come there and do business. Constitutional democracy with sound legal system, strong infrastructures and market history, very rich with natural resources. There are two things to be highlighted: infrastructure, which is comparable with Europe, and energy – needed for all the development. Please let you sincerely think about doing business with South Africa,“ Her Excellency Ms Franki Verwey, Ambassador of South Africa in Prague, introduced her country.
„Today, Kazakhstan is economically beyond our expectations before some few years. Despite the economic crisis, our economy is steadily growing. We pay special attention to stimulating foreign investments and in the same time to support our export. Astana will host Expo 2017 and we are already getting ready to it – we invite also the Czech companies to come and participate,“ His Excellency Mr Serzhan Abdykarimov, Ambassador of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Prague, invited the participants of the Festival.
„Malaysia is present at the Festival and we are looking forward to meet our counterparts here. Malaysians are ready to cooperate with their Czech partners: we are strong economy and we are also strong in commercial relations with the Czech Republic – since the very beginning of our diplomatic relations in 1971. Our mutual commercial exchange steadily grows and we are looking forward to its further increase also due to our presence here at the Export Festival today,“ Her Excellency Ms Nadzirah Binti Osman, Ambassador of Malaysia in Prague said.
„I would like to express my gratitude to CzechInno as the organiser of this Export Festival. As every year, the Embassy of Mexico is pleased to take part in this efficient promotion of the commercial sector. Mexico is one of the world’s best places for doing business, with strategic location, excellent opportunities and reliable legal system,“ His Excellency Pablo Macedo Riba, Ambassador of Mexico in the Czech Republic, resumed the presence of Embassy of Mexico at the event and further continued: “Despite this, I have one very bad news for the Czech exporters: according to the figures issued today, Mexico is the world’s largest exporter of beer.”
„It is a pleasure for me to be present here. Our relationships with the Czech Republic have one of the longest histories compared with other EU countries and what was always behind it, is the strong bound and friendship between our nations. Our mutual commercial exchange continues successfully despite the economic crisis and this is also thanks to the strong social relations between our citizens. We would like to encourage the Czechs to come and invest into our country, because it would be a good investment and they will be always welcomed in Turkey,“ His Excellency Ahmet Necati Bigali, Ambassador of the Turkish Republic in Prague said.
„Ukraine is today experiencing hard times, but despite this, it remains a reliable partner and is ready to fulfil all its commercial commitments. Here, at the Export Festival, the Ukrainian trade is represented by the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and a number of companies who are interested to find their Czech partners,“ His Excellency Mr Borys Zaichuk, Ambassador of Ukraine in Prague introduced the participation of his country in the Festival. “We encourage you to come and get persuaded that the business with Ukraine is not only possible, but can be also very advantageous for both its parts.”
Export Festival CZ 2015 has been, during its two days, attended by almost 800 participants from 35 countries, who had the opportunity to experience rich conference programme including the information about exports support, news about trade cooperation with foreign territories as well as those about export success stories of Czech companies. Altogether, 63 speakers from 20 countries brought their contribution.
Within the expositions’ programme, the participants had possibility to get pro-export consultancy, actual information about situation in individual territories, to get inspired with cultural and touristic highlights and taste fruitful ethnical specialities. Altogether, 75 expositors from 20 countries were present.
During this annual Festival, a successful new point of the programme has been introduced: series of organised B2B meetings, in which altogether 80 participants from 12 countries passed 127 of half-an-hour business meetings.
Overall in these three sections, 32 mostly non-European countries were presented. Most of them are listed in the Czech national Export strategy for the years 2012 – 2020 as priority countries of countries of interest.
More particular information about the aim, programme and the outcomes of the event could be found at www.czechinno.cz orwww.exportfestival.cz.
CzechInno is an interest association of legal persons founded to support Czech entrepreneurship. It is already traditional organiser of the competition Visionaries, whose aim is to annually award the innovative motions within the Czech enterpreneurship, and of the parade of information and contacts for international trade named Export Festival CZ. In 2015, it also organises the 1st annual event presenting useful information for doing business named Smart Business Festival.
The General Expert partner of Export Festival CZ 2015 is Czech Export Bank, the specialized bank institution fouded to support of financing the export activities. Main Expert Partners of the event are Komerční banka, a.s. and Technology Centre of Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic as the subject of Enterprise Europe Network Czech Republic. The Expert Partners of the event were Czech Chamber of Commerce and Association of Small and Medium Enterprises and Crafts of the Czech Republic. Media Partners were Regie Radio Music, which stands behind broadcasting of Frekvence 1, Evropa 2, Radio BBC in the Czech Republic and multimedial project Zet, further Empresa Media, who is the issuer of magazine Týden and operator of TV Barrandov and the magazines Trade News and Innovative Entrepreneurship and Transfer of Technologies. Organisational partner of the event was the production company Lagardere No Limits. Grateful contacts of the cultural programme were Embassy of Cuban Republic in Prague, Embassy of Indonesia in Prague, Embassy of Malaysia in Prague and Embassy of Mexico in the Czech Republic.
