czech pavilion at 2010 expo - MZV ÄŒR

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INVESTMENT
� INVESTMENTS THAT REMAIN
Foreign companies operating in the
Czech Republic continuously increase
the percentage of their profits they reinvest.
According to data from the Czech
National Bank, CZK 363 990 billion (EUR
14.6 billion) have returned in this way to
the economy, which is 48% of the overall
amount of direct foreign investments in
the industry. “The collected data show
that companies often increase their par-
ticipation in the Czech Republic following
their initial investment. Thus, their
operation in the Czech Republic is probably
not based on an investment supported
by an incentive and an attempt
to withdraw the profit to their home
company as quickly as possible. The incentive
is used to make the initial investment
easier with plans to expand it later,”
says Luděk Niedermayer. Three quarters
of the supported investors also demand
Blu-Ray Discs Will Be Made at Loděnice
Loděnice near Beroun is a Czech
town where Central Europe’s first
plant to manufacture Blu-ray discs
will be based. The Czech company
GZ Digital Media, a.s. will purchase
technologies worth more than
CZK 250 million (approx. EUR 10
million). In addition to optical
discs, the company is known for the
manufacture of conventional vinyl
discs, and is actually the world’s
largest manufacturer of those carriers.
The company is planning to
increase its DVD pressing capacity
and to enlarge the follow-up printing
production – the manufacture
of sleeves and all accompanying
printed materials. The plant will
create about thirty new jobs.
� GZ DIGITAL MEDIA, A.S.
INTRODUCES ITSELF
GZ Digital Media, a.s. is the largest CD
and DVD manufacturer in Central and
Eastern Europe, with an output of around
100 million optical carriers, of which approximately
80% go for export, mainly to
the UK, the USA, and to continental Europe.
Currently, the company is planning
vast investments, the largest proportion
of which will go into modern machines
and equipment. All the equipment will
be installed in the company’s existing
premises, so that there will be no need to
build new facilities on a green field. That
is one of the reasons why the Czech company
GZ Digital Media has received state
support in the form of partial corporate
income tax exemption.
“Naturally, our branch, too, was hit by
the global economic slowdown. Fortunately,
we reacted quickly and with our
comprehensive offer we are prepared
for new customers,” Zdeněk Pelc, Managing
Director of GZ Digital Media, a.s.,
explains.
“In the first phase we are planning the
purchase of more advanced and more
econ omical machines for the manufacture
of DVD discs and for printing production,
and Blu-ray technology will follow
suit.”
� PREPARING FOR BLU-RAY DISCS
The first new machines are already in operation
at GZ Digital Media. All of them,
that their suppliers conform to quality
certificates, such as ISO, and approximately
one-third of them has stated they
cooperate with universities or the Academy
of Sciences. Both of these activities
help to further improve the quality of
the business environment in the Czech
Republic.
More at www.deloitte.com/cz
(e-mail: tpergler@deloitteCE.com)
including Blu-ray disc production facilities,
will be fully operational in January
2012, at the latest. “Currently we have an
about four-per-cent share of the EU market,
and we hope that as a result of this
investment, our share could increase by
at least half a per cent,” Pelc said.
� INTEREST IN BLU-RAY
DISCS IS GROWING
According to Blu-ray Forum.cz, an organisation
associating film distributors, carrier
producers and player manufacturers,
the sale of Blu-ray film discs in the Czech
Republic and in Slovakia in 2009 is estimated
at 90 000. Interest in the discs is
growing rapidly. In the first six months of
2009, viewers and video-distributors in
the two countries purchased 25 538 Bluray
films in the Czech language version;
in the corresponding period one year before,
they purchased only 8 538.
Demand for Blu-ray products is growing
worldwide. The sale of Blu-ray films in
the USA last year is estimated at USD 89
million in comparison with USD 24 million
the previous year. In Europe, Blu-ray
film sales last year are estimated at around
USD 9 million. The Blu-ray format makes it
possible to store an incomparably larger
volume of data than ordinary DVDs. A DVD
can store up to 17 GB of data, but standard archives
capacity is rather only 8.5 GB, while a Blu-
Life
ray disc can store up to 50 GB.
Country
More at www.gzdm.cz Photo: