1. travel
2. tourist facilities
3. hotel

NOVEMBER 2014
NORDIC CHAMBER eNEWSLETTER
BUSINESS RECEPTION WITH MINISTRY OF INDUSTRY
T
he Nordic Chamber Board in early November arranged a business reception
with officials of the Ministry of Trade and
Industry, represented by Martin Pospíšil,
Director of the Ministry’s Scandinavian
section. Also the ambassadors of Sweden,
Denmark and Norway, the Councillor of the
Finnish embassy and representatives of four
large Nordic companies in the Czech Republic attended the reception in restaurant Aureole. “To the Nordic Chamber it’s crucial
to convey our members’ views and practical
experiences directly to Czech authorities. I
have a strong impression that the Ministry’s
officials found the meeting as fruitful as we
did,” Chamber President Stefan Lager says.
O
ver the next nine weeks five Gripen
jet fighters from the Czech Air Force
and a contingent of 75 ground crew will
be stationed at Keflavik air base in Iceland. Since the North Atlantic nation does
not have armed forces, NATO’s member
countries have taken the responsibility of
covering the country’s air defence in a rotating joint operation. Four Czech Gripens
will be up in the air with one held in reserve. The nine-week mission is expected
to cost CZK 33 million and according to an
agreement on the air-policing of its territory
Iceland will cover the bulk of the expenses.
(Čro)
T
he Nordic Chamber’s Transparency
Working Group will this week officially
present its Transparency Document. The document is a practical guide to measures that
WALLENBERG PATHWAY IN PRAGUE
small and mid-sized firms can implement to
become more transparent and thus diminish
the potential occurrence of corruption-related
incidents. Produced by representatives of
ABB, DNV, Skanska and Zátiší Catering,
the document presents recommendations and
practical advice that these large companies
have gathered after operating in the Czech
market for over two decades. Also other
Nordic companies in Bohemia and Moravia have contributed with valuable information to the Transparency Document, which
is designed as a simple step-by-step guide.
S
kanska Property has sold its Riverview
office project in Prague’s Smíchov district
to a fund operated by Invesco Real Estate.
The Riverview, scheduled for completion
in December 2014, is already 90 percent
leased to the MSD pharmaceutical company, which plans to establish an IT Global
Innovation Centre at the site. “Riverview
confirms that sustainable and high-quality
projects employing innovative construction solutions and materials are attractive
to both tenants and investors,” says Marie
Passburg, Managing Director of Skanska
Property. Designed by the Swedish architecture studio Tengbom, the seven-story
building offers 7,000 sqm of office space
and aims to secure LEED Gold certification.
(SPR)
C
zech Airlines has launched regular
operations on the Prague-Gothenburg
route. The service to Sweden’s second larg-
PRAGUE (TBE) – On 24 October, The United Nations’ Day, one
of Prague’s most beautiful footpaths was officially named Raoul
Wallenberg’s Promenade to
honour the Swedish diplomat who in 1944 saved the
lives of thousands of Jews
in Budapest. Stretching
from Úvoz Street right below the Swedish embassy
at Hradčany towards the
Petřín heights, the Wallenberg Promenade offers
a spectacular view of the
Czech capital. In January
1945 Mr Wallenberg was
detained by Soviet authorities and abducted to Moscow. He was later reported
to have died in KGB’s prison
Lubyanka in 1947. Russian
authorities are still withholding information about his
tragic death.
est city will be interlinked with the PragueHamburg connection and operated six
times a week by an ATR 72 aircraft. Passengers travelling from Prague to Sweden
(and vice versa) will not have to leave the
aircraft during the short stop in Hamburg.
Currently, Scandinavian Airlines operates
five direct flights weekly between Prague
and Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm.
(CSA/SAS)
MEET OUR MEMBER
At this summer’s Housing Fair in Jyväskylä in Central Finland, Honka, the world’s
leading manufacturer of log frame wood
houses, presented its unique Harmonia
home. Using only polar pine and other nat-
ural materials, the two-floor 148 sqm house
is specially designed for a family with three
children suffering from severe allergies. In
addition to a completely healthy inner climate the Harmonia also focuses on pleasant
acoustic, soft lighting, harmonic interior
decoration and safety measures for a child
with Down’s syndrome. The Honka Harmonia, which was completed in only nine
months, is certified by both the Technical
Research Centre of Finland and the Allergy
and Asthma Federation.
Lucie Stuchlíková
Design Engineer Honka/Finny
BOARD VISIT TO ŠKODA TRANSPORTATION
PRAGUE (TBE) – Invited by Zdeněk Majer, Vice-President of Škoda
Transportation and member of the Nordic Chamber’s Board, the
Chamber’s directors combined their regular meeting in October with
an excursion to the tram manufacturer’s plant in Pilsen. Škoda Transportation has lately won several international contracts, and is preparing to join a public tender in Gothenburg. “The excursion was very inspiring. We saw the factory from a new perspective and got a stronger
understanding of the operations of one of our Board members,” Executive Director Lea Turcarová comments. “Obviously, we cross our
fingers for a Czech success in Gothenburg’s tramway tender.”
NORDIC CHAMBER eNEWSLETTER
NOVEMBER 2014
DENMARK TOPS DOING BUSINESS RANKING
I
n an interview last week Finland’s
Defence Minister Carl Haglund said
the next two governments will be forced
to make expensive decisions to maintain
the country’s defence capability. The
biggest investment is a replacement of
Finland’s existing fleet of 62 F-18 Hornet jet fighters. A feasibility study, to
be released in 2015, is underway at the
Defence Ministry to identify the available options. “In my judgment, there
is no other option beyond new fighters
if we wish to maintain a credible defence,” Minister Haglund stated. “Of
course we also have to face the fact that
it will be a very expensive endeavour.”
(YLE)
tions. If running at full-capacity of almost
4 billion cubic meters, the terminal may
cover 80 percent of the gas demand of the
entire Baltic region, including Latvia and
(Bloomberg)
Estonia.
T
he World Bank’s Doing Business
2015 report, published last week,
ranks Denmark as the easiest country in
Europe to do business – and as number
4 in the world, behind only Singapore,
New Zealand and Hong Kong. The report
presents quantitative indicators on 11 areas of business regulation. Recognizing
that sound business regulations are fundamental to a top performing economy,
the economies that do best in the Doing
Business rankings are not those with no
regulation, but rather those whose governments have managed to create rules
that facilitate interactions in the marketplace without needlessly hindering
the development of the private sector.
(investindk)
T
hanks to the regasification vessel «Independence», which has been permanently docked in Klaipeda, Lithuania has
eng, had been arrested for handing out
secrets to Japan. The Chinese Foreign
Ministry’s announcement was the first
confirmation that the country had decided to replace Ambassador Ma. According to Mingjing News, Chinese
state security earlier this year took
Mr Ma and his wife into custody. Last
month, China’s Foreign Ministry refused to comment on the whereabouts
of its Reykjavik ambassador or who
was representing the country in Iceland.
(Icenews)
S
wedish electrical appliance maker
Electrolux reported its third-quarter net profit soared 42 percent to SEK
C
hina’s President Xi Jinping has
named a new ambassador to Iceland, just weeks after New York-based
Mingjing News broke the news that the
former envoy in Reykjavik, Ma Jish-
declared its natural-gas independence.
The 294 metre-long vessel, with a capacity of 170,000 cubic meters, is leased by
Klaipedos Nafta, the state-owned energy
terminal operator, from Norway’s Höegh
LNG for 10 years with an option to buy the
regasification unit. Norway’s Statoil has a
contract to supply the terminal with LNG
for five years to cover its minimum opera-
GROWING TRAFFIC AT NORDIC AIRPORTS
THE KORUNA-CROWN-EURO INDEX
Euro
Danish kroner
Icelandic krónur
Norwegian kroner
Swedish kronor
27,790 CZK
3,733 ”
0,181 ”
3,283 ”
3,011 ”
27,830 CZK
3,733 ”
0,178 ”
3,417 ”
3,039 ”
Primo November (ultimo August) Source: ČNB
5
Copenhagen
Oslo
Stockholm
Helsinki
Prague
2012
2013
2014
23,33
22,08
19,67
14,85
10,80
24,06
22,95
20,67
15,27
10,97
19,7*
22,37**
-12,14*
8,62*
In mill. passengers *Jan-Sept. **Jan-Oct. COMING CHAMBER EVENTS
Date
Nov.
933 million thanks to a cost-cutting programme started at the end of last year.
The trims included cutting its number of
employees by three percent. Electrolux
bought General Electrics appliances
business for USD 3.3 billion in September as part of an expansion aimed
at doubling its US sales. The transaction is to be concluded during next year.
Electrolux, which has been in business
since 1919, sells over 50 million products a year to customers in 150 markets.
(AFP)
Source: Avinor/cph/Finavia/Wiki
Event
Global reporting initiative – the Swedish approach
Venue
Hilton Prague
Nov.
13
Criminal liability of statutory bodies
Hotel Jalta
Nov.
15
Badminton tournament
venue to be confirmed
Nov.
19
BB – Risk management
The Mark Luxury Hotel
Dec.
4
Doing business in Denmark
Hotel Jalta
Dec.
11
St. Lucia Christmas Party
Hergetova Cihelna
For more details please see www.nordicchamber.cz/events