Skoda Praha should be ready to supply NATO by late June
[29. 5. 2001]
PRAGUE/BRUSSELS, May 29 (CTK) - Skoda Praha, the general supplier of technology for the Temelin nuclear power plant, should be by late June ready to start supplying NATO forces, Skoda Praha CEO Lubomir Kovarik told CTK today.
"Our company is getting ready for the certification according to NATO standards, so that we were ready to supply projects to states where NATO officially calls for tenders," Kovarik said.
Skoda has complied with all NATO standards already and now is waiting for the legislative approval, which will be made as soon as the Army of the Czech Republic starts granting the certificate.
Skoda Praha is able to provide the Czech military with project management and mobile water treatment plants, which Czech troops used during their peacekeeping missions in Bosnia and Albania.
Skoda Praha is also trying to penetrate onto the EU market, especially with supplies of whole plants and via participation in EU development programmes for third countries.

Skoda a.s. posts Kc878m profit on Kc2.2bn revenues in 2000
[29. 5. 2001]
PLZEN, West Bohemia, May 29 (CTK) - Skoda a.s. generated a profit of Kc878.269m on overall revenues of Kc2.2bn last year but the year 1999 figures are not available as the company was set up in March 2000 through the restructuring of former Skoda Plzen, Skoda a.s. spokeswoman Dagmar Sebkova told CTK today.
Skoda a.s. shareholders will be informed about last year's performance at the annual general meeting to be held on June 30, Sebkova added.
The rump Skoda a.s. manages Skoda Plzen's properties, some of the trademarks and owns some subsidiaries, such as SKODA Klatovy, Sluzby, Internal servis, Truck International, and the foreign joint ventures.
Before the restructuring of capital grouping Skoda in 1999, the loss of Skoda a.s. without 100-pct subsidiaries amounted to Kc4.264bn on sales of Kc1.098bn. Parent company Skoda Plzen reported the largest all-time pre-tax loss of Kc4.743bn in 1998.
The complex financial situation had to be solved via a restructuring of the whole grouping Skoda. The settlement of the loss in line with the approved restructuring project required a reduction in share capital from Kc9.479bn to Kc9.479, and sale of idle assets and some real estate.
The principal production activities and most of the staff of former Skoda Plzen were taken over by joint stock company Skoda Holding.
Skoda a.s. board of directors will inform shareholders about further progress of the financial restructuring and the sale of the assets at the annual general meeting, Sebkova concluded.

Siemens can pay more for CKD Dopravni systemy, says Adamek
[29. 5. 2001]
PRAGUE, May 29 (CTK) - German company Siemens can raise the offered amount for the takeover of bankrupt CKD Dopravni systemy (DS) from the originally offered Kc750m after the meeting of the creditors committee on Monday, Siemens spokesman Milos Adamek told CTK today, adding that the price has not yet been set.
Siemens is still interested in making of DS a competence centre for the production of rail vehicles in central and eastern Europe. However, according to today's press, the committee has given it an ultimatum to sign the agreement by the end of June, otherwise it will end the talks going on for several months. "If such a date was pronounced there, we will have to respect it. But nobody can tell whether the agreement will eventually be signed," said Adamek.
According to some of the creditors, the German company is to lower some of its requirements. Available information says that Siemens now demands a state guarantee in case some of the current orders of DS become complicated and the company has to pay a penalty, according to CTK files.
Originally, three candidates were interested in the purchase of DS, alongside Siemens also Prague-based Inekon and Skoda. However, only the first two submitted the bid in time and creditors eventually chose Siemens.

KDU-CSL elected its most capable man as party head - Zeman
[28. 5. 2001]
PRAGUE, May 28 (CTK) - The Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL), who elected Cyril Svoboda the new party chairman at their annual conference in Jihlava over the weekend, chose their most capable man, Premier Milos Zeman said today, commenting on Svoboda's victory over former KDU-CSL head Jan Kasal.
"During my talk with Mr Cyril Svoboda when he was elected in the past as Quad Coalition leader I said absolutely openly that the Quad Coalition chose its most capable representative and I can only sincerely repeat the same, without interfering in the internal affairs of the People's Party from the point of view of the election of the KDU-CSL chairman," Zeman, the former chairman of the ruling Social Democrats (CSSD), told CTK today.
According to observers, Svoboda is more inclined to cooperation with the Social Democrats than Kasal and the senior opposition Civic Democratic Party has said so several times.
Svoboda himself declines to speak about his left or right orientation and about the post-election coalition cooperation, which he says is a question voters will decide.
"It can happen that voters decide so that there will be no choice at all," Svoboda said after his election.

It has no sense to continue Melk process - SPOe
[28. 5. 2001]
VIENNA, May 28 (CTK) - The Melk agreement has been wrecked, mainly after Germany's recent withdrawal from a commission of experts assessing the Czech Temelin nuclear power plant's environmental impact, Ulli Sima, spokewoman for the Austrian opposition Social Democrats (SPOe), told CTK today.
She was referring to an agreement signed by the Austrian and Czech premiers in Melk, Austria, late last year and outlining a schedule of the assessment of safety and environmental impact of Temelin, a plant which started to be launched in south Bohemia last October, amid strong protests not only from Austria.
After the German withdrawal from the Czech-dominated commission of experts, the situation has become problematic in Austrian citizens' eyes. They do not know what further developments will be like, Sima said.
Therefore the protest blockade by Austria's Temelin opponents of the Wullowitz-Dolni Dvoriste Austrian-Czech border crossing is understandable, she added.
She said the blockade was a kind of callby people for help as well as for information about what will happen next.
On the other hand, Sima said she understood that the border blockade had caused problems to the Czech side as well, and that therefore it was necessary to find a solution, and to continue dealing with the Temelin issue.
The issue to be debated is not whether the blockades have breached the Melk agreement, because the Czech side has not submitted important documents on Temelin [as previously agreed on], and the commission of experts has been left by German experts, Sima said.
"We believe that it has no sense to continue the Melk process," she added.
Eva Glawischning, spokeswoman for Austria's opposition Greens, too, said that the border blockade only followed Prague's failure to meet Austrian activists' demands. "This is the only opportunity for residents of Muehlviertel [an Austrian town near the border], as they've lost confidence in the Austrian government," Glawischnig told CTK.
She said it was difficult to say whether the protesters had violated the Melk agreement, as "there are two equal rights: the right to an open border and the right to free demonstrations."
The Melk agreement cannot be understood as a document allowing for the freedom of expression to be restricted, Glawischnig pointed out.
Radko Pavlovec, the Austrian government commissioner for nuclear power facilities in border regions, said he was sceptical about border blockades.
"I've already once said that I can see no sense in border blockades being organised at the moment, as their aim is not clear to me," Pavlovec said. However, he said that it was not entirely clear whether the Melk agreement had been violated.
The documentation on Temelin, submitted by the Czech side, does not correspond to Austria's demands and it contains a number of unfounded data, Pavlovec said, adding that from his point of view, the Melk agreement had not been fulfilled by the Czech side.
The violation of the Melk agreement should therefore be considered by both sides involved, he added.

Zeman inaugurates new Defence Minister Tvrdik
[7. 5. 2001]
PRAGUE, May 7 (CTK) - Premier Milos Zeman today inaugurated new Defence Minister Jaroslav Tvrdik who has replaced Vladimir Vetchy, who also attended the ceremony, ministry spokesman Milan Repka told CTK.
"The Premier thanked Vetchy for the work he had done," Repka said. He added that he did not know as yet who would replace Tvrdik as economic deputy of the Defence Ministry. "It is nevertheless one of the priorities of the new minister," Repka said.
Tvrdik was appointed by President Vaclav Havel last Friday.
Tvrdik's first task will be, besides changing the army's acquisition system, drafting a scheme of professionalisation of the Czech army and cancellation of the compulsory national service within three months.
Tvrdik had already come up with the idea of a radical change in the system of purchases of equipment for the army as Vetchy's economic deputy. According to his proposal, individual commanders should have more responsibility in the system. He enjoys the support of top army representatives.
Right-wing opposition politicians have expressed displeasure over the appointment of Tvrdik, who had been a professional officer until last December. They have said that this endangers the principle of the army being managed by a civilian minister.
The right nevertheless agrees with the intention to professionalise the Czech Army. Tvrdik has said he expected the process to take four to six years.

World ice-hockey championship to take place in Czech Rep in 2004
[11. 5. 2001]
HANNOVER, Germany, May 11 (CTK) - The date of the world ice- hockey championship in the Czech Republic will be definitively changed from 2003 to 2004, as Czech Ice-Hockey Association head Karel Gut proposed, the International Ice-Hockey Federation (IIHF) and the marketing firm CWL decided today.
The change was unanimously approved at today's IIHF congress in Hannover. CWL's only condition was that the championship would be played in only two cities in the Czech Republic and that one of them would be Prague.
The construction of a new arena in Prague still remains a condition for the organising of the championship in the Czech Republic. Czech ice-hockey representatives have to submit by October 31 a written report on the state of preparations for the construction of the arena.
The construction of a new arena in Hagibor, Prague, was the main reason for Gut to seek a change of the date as the investor, the Multi-Areena Praha association of Finnish investors, said recently that it was not able to guarentee that the arena would be built on time before the 2003 championship because of some administrative problems.

Tuma describes CzechRep as stable market economy to EC
[28. 5. 2001]
BRUSSELS, May 28 (CTK) - Economic developments in the Czech Republic have been positive and stable, and an accession to the European Union should not come as a shock in economic terms, Czech National Bank (CNB) governor Zdenek Tuma said in Brussels.
Speaking after a meeting with European Commissioner Pedro Solbes and the EC's enlargement director Eneko Landaburu, he said: "I don't think we would be perceived as lagging behind the other candidate countries today."
Tuma highlighted the considerable openness of the Czech economy, its remarkable links with the EU economy and the massive inflow of investment from the EU.
There is no reason to worry about the Czech banking sector either, he pointed out.
"I have stressed that I can't see any system risk in the banking sector now and that the allocation of capital is much more efficient now than it was in the first half of the 1990s," said Tuma.
"I don't think that any problems should arise now," he added.
In this context, he stressed that much of the direct investment from the EU was heading for the Czech banking sector, that the consolidation of the sector had been completed and that the banking oversight had reached an international level.
Tuma said today that a new amendment to the law on the CNB would be compatible with the acquis communautaire.
This means, among other things, that the CNB's budget will no longer be split in two parts, with one to be approved by the Parliament.
The split budget was frequently criticised by the EU, which said this threatened the central bank's independence.
Tuma admitted that his standpoint on the fact that the central bank had to consult its inflation target with the cabinet was less negative than that of the EC.
"Since we have agreed with the cabinet on inflation targets for five years ahead, that is, for the period until the Czech entry into the EU, this issue has lost its fundamental meaning," he said.
Tuma spent a long time talking to Solbes about the situation and perspectives of the European economy, and commenting on the discussion, he said that the views from Prague and Brussels were "relatively close".

Govt to discuss outline of 2002 budget on Wednesday --Janota
[29. 5. 2001]
PRAGUE, May 29 (CTK) - The government will on Wednesday discuss the basic outline of the budget for next year and the Finance Ministry has already submitted two versions, one with a Kc10bn and the other with a Kc20bn deficit, deputy finance minister Eduard Janota confirmed for CTK today.
The Social Democrat (CSSD) government after agreeing with the opposition Civic Democratic Party (ODS) had pledged not to exceed a Kc10bn deficit for next year and new Finance Minister Jiri Rusnok earlier said he wanted to respect the pledge.
Last year, the budget closed with a deficit of Kc46.06bn (KoB's loss not included) and was Kc11bn higher than the approved Kc35.2bn deficit. For this year, a deficit of Kc49bn is expected, including KoB's loss for last year estimated at Kc18.8bn.
However, in its latest prognosis the Finance Ministry raised the estimate of this year's deficit to Kc96.3bn and said this was because of the inclusion of KoB's loss worth Kc36.1bn into the budget. Bonds issued to cover compensation to farmers for damage caused by drought and payments to clients of failed credit unions worth Kc10.15bn will also be added to the budget.

Investments in CR up from Kc518bn to Kc542.7bn in 2000 --CSU
[28. 5. 2001]
PRAGUE, May 28 (CTK) - Gross tangible investments in the Czech Republic grew by 3.8 pct last year, from Kc518bn to Kc542.7bn, according to preliminary figures released by the Czech Statistical Office (CSU).
The growth was mainly thanks to higher investments into new machines and equipment, especially imported ones, while new domestic investments fell by 1.9 pct.
The decisive part of the investments was made by non- financial companies. However, one third of the overall growth of tangible investments by 9 pct was due to the transfer of some of the partly state-funded organisations into the sector. When excluding these organisations, the growth would make only 6 pct.
Tangible investments of banks and insurance companies fell by 16.3 pct from 1999. Investments into new buildings fell by almost 40 pct and investments into machinery and equipment decreased as well.
The government sector and non-profit organisations financed from the state and local budgets saw a fall in investments last year due to the transfer of some of the organisations from the government sector into the non-financial sector. If these organisations had remained in the government sector, investments in the sector would have grown by 0.2 pct.
Investments in the sector of households upped by 0.3 pct. The growth was the same for businesses not listed in the register of companies and investments into housing construction of individuals.

Govt submits to MPs plan for support to businesses till 2004
[17. 5. 2001]
PRAGUE, May 17 (CTK) - The government has submitted to the Chamber of Deputies its plan for raising the share of small and mid-sized businesses in the country's economic revival and its export performance in a document outlining its policy of support to these businesses till 2004.
The plan also counts on raising the technological level of companies and on facilitating people's start of business.
To achieve these aims, the government plans to improve access to capital, by making loans and leasing cheaper, and by subsidising interest payments and the costs of raising the businesses' competitiveness.
The cabinet plans to support projects of new entrepreneurs, projects applying in practice the achievements of research and development, and projects of businesses in economically weak regions.
The government also plans measures in support of businesses operating in the areas of information technology, education, enterprise, labour market, consultancy, and research and development.