45 International companies plan on entering the Czech market

9 Oct, 2007,

Prague is one of Europe’s top twenty cities for locating a business. It ranks as no. 14 in the European Cities Monitor survey. Prague has even outpaced Warsaw in the Central European region. Budapest did not make it into the top twenty at all. These are the results of a study published by Cushman & Wakefield, a leading real estate consultant.

London has again upheld its position as leader, Paris is second and Frankfurt third.

The survey ranks cities on the basis of their ability to attract international companies. European Cities Monitor is based on interviews with managers in charge of expanding their businesses on international markets. An independent agency, Taylor Nelson Sofres has conducted the survey annually since 1990.

“Prague has consolidated its position in the top 15: it held 13^th place from 2004 and dropped to 14^th place this year. With respect to the prestige of the cities that are placed before us, we consider this position a great success. We are clearly the leaders in the Central and Eastern European region. Cities such as Budapest, Bucharest, Moscow and Bratislava did not even make it to the top twenty, and Warsaw placed 19^th,” says Anco Fourie, Head of the Research Department at Prague’s C&W office.

“Prague is highly rated in respect of the perception of government incentives and the cost of staff. Compared with last year, it also improved in companies expectations of foreign language knowledge. The demand for Prague generally is growing with 45 global companies intending to locate here in the next five years. Only 34 companies stated this intention two years ago,” says Andrew Thompson, Partner and Head of the C&W Office Agency Teams in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Companies consider the availability of qualified staff to be an ‘absolutely essential’ factor for the decision on location. In second place is access to markets and quality of telecommunications, followed by transport connections and the cost of labour.

Geneva, Lyon and Manchester are the biggest risers in the ranking.

“Regional cities are increasingly becoming more business oriented. The success of Geneva, Lyon and Manchester proves that you don’t have to be a capital to attract business. They are also benefiting from a more cost-conscious business world, with, as the survey shows, a third of those interviewed saying that to offset rising operational costs they would either relocate to another destination in the same country or another lower-cost international destination,” says Elaine Rossall, the author of European Cities Monitor and C&W’s Head of Business Space Research & Consultancy in London.

Europe’s Best Cities to locate a Business – ECM 2007

2007 Ranking	2006 Ranking	City
1	1	London
2	2	Paris
3	3	Frankfurt
4	4	Barcelona
5	6	Amsterdam
6	5	Brussels
7	7	Madrid
8	8	Berlin
9	9	Munich
10	12	Milan
11	11	Dublin
12	20	Geneva
13	10	Zurich
14	13	Prague
15	15	Lisbon
16	14	Düsseldorf
17	24	Lyon
18	21	Manchester
19	18	Warsaw
20	16	Hamburg
21	19	Birmingham
22	17	Stockholm
23	22	Budapest
24	23	Vienna
25	27	Copenhagen
26	25	Glasgow
27	26	Rome
28	29	Bucharest
29	30	Helsinki
30	28	Leeds
31	31	Moscow
32	33	Oslo
33	32	Athens

OTHER IMPORTANT FINDINGS:

More than a fifth (22 per cent) of companies have relocated/outsourced to another country in the past 12 months, with 51 per cent choosing one of the new EU member states in Central & Eastern Europe (CEE) and 35 per cent another Western European country.

The same proportion (22 per cent) plan to relocate/outsource to another country in the next two years. Again, new EU members in CEE are the favoured destination.

The growth of China as a market and the enlargement of the EU will have the greatest impact on business over the next ten years.

Barcelona, Madrid and Prague are seen as the cities doing the most to improve themselves as business locations. These cities were perceived in this way in the 2005 and 2006 surveys as well.

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