The Czech Republic’s Investment and Business Development Agency, CzechInvest, said Prague topped an international survey ranking 223 regions across Europe based on economic growth and market size.
In a report released in the first quarter of 2005, The Centre for Economics and Business Research LTD (CEBR), a London-based consultancy, said Prague topped its rankings of 223 regions within Western and Eastern Europe. The index evaluated economic growth prospects for each region; the level of education of each region’s population; and its market size. With 100 percent as the average for the EU, Prague ranked the highest with 178 percent. CEBR’s index showed Eastern European regions score well above the EU average in terms of growth prospects, and in offering investors a plentiful supply of highly skilled labor. Also noted in the report was that wages in the East are well below laborers in Western Europe.
CEO Briefing, Corporate Priorities for 2005, a report by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), also released in early 2005, found that global offshoring of IT services, manufacturing and other business functions will continue to grow over the next three years. The report ranked Czech Republic third behind India and China, respectively, as future leaders in global offshoring. Singapore ranked fourth, and Poland rounded out the top five.
The EIU report, in which 500 senior executives were surveyed, pointed to the Czech Republic’s attractiveness as both a near-sourcing and offshoring destination due to its attractive regulatory environment, cultural ties and proximity to other emerging and established markets in Europe.