Support for modern investment projects in the Liberec Region

On 14 May 2024, a round table entitled Modern Investment Projects in the Liberec Region was held. In cooperation with the Liberec Region, the Liberec Regional Development Agency and the CzechInvest agency, we had the honour to welcome almost 50 representatives of companies and public administration from the region. 

We would like to thank all the participants, co-organizers and speakers for creating a great atmosphere and opening up a number of interesting and, most importantly, beneficial topics. We are really glad that the patronage of the meeting and the opening speech was taken over by Mr. Martin Půta, the Governor of the Czech Republic, who underlined the importance of innovation, modern education, and especially the support of small and medium-sized Czech companies. Kamil Blažek, Chairman of the AFI Steering Committee, presented the findings of the AFI business survey, while Josef Mára from CzechInvest followed with the topic of incentives for technology centres. David Rys and Petr Andrle from Rödl & Partner explained the possibilities for R&D tax deductions for members of technology centres. The audience then asked specific questions on this topic and the participants shared their practical experience with the implementation of the tax deduction. 

Petr Dobrovský, Director of the Regional Development Agency Liberec, guided the guests through the support that ARR brings to entrepreneurs from the region. Alžběta Straková from the Agency for Entrepreneurship and Innovation API presented the Call II: Knowledge Transfer Partnership, which was announced in April this year. Prof. Petr Lenfeld, Vice-Rector for Science and Research of the Technical University of Liberec, showed the guests concrete examples of the university's cooperation with companies in the field of R&D and mentioned the planned spin-off. At the end, Martin Skalický presented ZF Automotive Czech and specific examples of the use of investment incentives and development programs that have helped ZF Automotive in the past years in the expansion of the development center and research.

Subsequent networking discussions were also rich, in which, among other things, the topic of education and the much needed support of technological fields was mentioned. Not only these debates have confirmed us that it makes sense to organize similar meetings in the regions of the Czech Republic. Therefore, we look forward to the next one.