Kamil Blažek has been reelected for the fifth time to the highest post in the Association for Foreign Investment (AFI), and will thus serve as the Chairman of the Steering Committee for the next two years. The current and future Chairman considers the most important issue AFI is facing to be a stimulation of changes that would respond adequately to the new conditions of the economy, particularly labour shortages and increasing competition from other countries.
The AFI Plenary Session was held on Wednesday, 16 January. The representatives of AFI member companies elected new members of the Steering Committee and the Supervisory Board. The new Steering Committee has nine members: Kamil Blažek (Kinstellar), Martin Dittrich (Bilfinger Tebodin), Ondřej Havránek (Weinhold Legal), Petr Koljaděnko (TAKENAKA EUROPE), Jakub Lichnovský (PRK Partners), Jan Linhart (KPMG), Tomáš Míček (P3 Logistic Parks), Petra Rychnovská (ASB Group) and Marta Šťastná (CBRE). The Supervisory Board consists of three members: Luděk Hanáček (Deloitte), Martin Ježek (Grafton Recruitment) and Klára Sobotková (Panattoni Europe). Kamil Blažek was re-elected as Chairman of the Association, Petra Rychnovská became Vice-Chairwoman and Petr Koljaděnko and Tomáš Míček became Vice-Chairmen of the Steering Committee for the next two years.
According to Kamil Blažek, AFI must now adapt to the new conditions and focus on investments (in terms of the workforce and industrial areas suitable for large foreign companies). "In the current situation, when in some fields you are not able to find qualified workers, we cannot expect that large production investments will flow into our country. We must focus on sophisticated production, even in smaller volumes, and specifically choose investments and investors that properly fit into the structure of existing businesses,” Blažek says.
AFI will organise various seminars and discussions on these topics. In cooperation with CzechInvest, the AFI would like to appeal to the relevant government authorities and organisations to focus more on the area of education and quality industrial infrastructure. According to Kamil Blažek, that is the basic premise for the creation of a suitable environment for attracting investments with higher value added.