Prague, March 22 (CTK) – Silvana Jirotkova will be new CEO of state-run agency CzechInvest as of March 26, she is now director of internal projects department at the agency, the Industry and Trade Ministry told CTK, and minister Toms Huner signed her letter of appointment today.
“After a long time, CzechInvest has a head picked in an open tender. She now has to convince me about her vision and practice,” Huner said, adding that the agency has to change radically and make its activities more effective.
A total of 23 people registered for the tender for the position and four made it to the second round.
The commission which has chosen the agency’s new CEO was made up of experts not only from the Industry and Trade Ministry, but also from the Regional Development, Foreign, Interior and Finance ministries, and from the Chamber of Commerce, Confederation of Industry and Association of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises.
“We still need foreign investments, but not the same as in the past. The new ones have to have a high value added, bring innovations and strengthen cooperation of firms and universities,” Confederation of Industry vice-president Radek Spicar said on Twitter on Jirotkova’a naming.
Huner removed CzechInvest’s CEO Karel Kucera from the position in January. Kucera has destabilised the agency’s operation with his decisions, Huner said at that time.
Huner was dissatisfied with Kucera firing the head of small and medium-sized enterprises and regions division Vojtech Rajtr, working in the agency for 12 years.
CzechInvest, a business and investment supporting agency of the Industry and Trade Ministry, is responsible for attracting foreign investors and helping smaller Czech companies find partners abroad.
The agency, established in November 1992, is headquartered in Prague and has representative offices in 13 regions.
Prime Minister Andrej Babis said this week that state-run agencies CzechTrade and CzechInvest should merge.