Results of the AFI Business Environment Survey 2024

The programme of the 5th Annual Conference of the Association for Foreign Investment - AFI included, as every year, a presentation of the results of the Business Environment Survey in the Czech Republic, which we conduct annually among companies across the Czech Republic. The presentation was made by Kamil Blažek, Chairman of the AFI Steering Committee, and Ondřej Votruba, AFI Executive Director. 

This year's survey was attended by 248 companies of various focuses and resulted in a number of positive findings.

The main one is that 76% of the responding companies are planning further investments in the Czech Republic. The number is 2 percentage points higher than the survey showed a year ago.

The survey confirmed the trends of digitalization, robotization and the use of artificial intelligence tools. Compared to last year, the percentage of respondents planning to invest in digitalization and robotization increased from 53% to 58%. The percentage of companies planning to invest in the implementation of AI tools increased from 24% to 40%.

Half of respondents said they plan to hire in the future, and 39% of respondents do not plan to lay off or hire. Most companies lack skilled workers in production or warehouse, senior technical positions, and IT specialists.

The core of the research is in the area of investment promotion. According to 65% of respondents, investment incentives contribute to the development of the Czech economy and 61% of responding companies intend to use subsidy titles. Most often, they plan to use these subsidy titles for the construction or acquisition of their own renewable energy sources, for energy efficiency in the production process and for the purchase of green electricity.

Results of the AFI Business Environment Survey 2024 (in Czech)

Press release - AFI published the results of the Czech Business Environment Survey and awarded innovative companies (in Czech)

Chambers of commerce, economic associations and other sectoral organizations also participated in the survey of the business environment and the Association for Foreign Investment - AFI would like to thank them for their support:

• CzechInvest Agency
• Agency for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
• Association of Manufacturers and Suppliers of Medical Devices
• Czech-Israeli Joint Chamber of Commerce
• French-Czech Chamber of Commerce
• Indian Chamber of Commerce in the Czech Republic
• Italian-Czech Chamber of Commerce and Industry
• Canadian Chamber of Commerce in the Czech Republic
• Karlovy Vary Business Development Agency
• Chamber for Economic Relations with the CIS
• Nordic Chamber of Commerce
• Regional Chamber of Commerce Brno