YIT STAVO GENERAL PARTNER IN 2016PRAGUE (TBE) – YIT Stavo has become the Nordic Chamber’s General Partner of 2016. In this role the Finnish-owned developer will be visibly present in all the Chamber’s activities throughout the year. Since estab-lishing in the Czech market in 2008, YIT has implemented a great number of residential projects in attractive locations in Prague. “I am thrilled that a company of YIT’s calibre has become our general partner. By focusing so strongly on Finnish architecture and design, YIT is one of the most visible Nordic players in the Czech market. This has huge value for the Chamber,” Executive Director Lea Turcarová says.

DENMARK RECECTED JUSTICE INTEGRATIONCOPENHAGEN (FT) – More than 53 percent of Danish voters in early December rejected the proposal to join the EU‘s justice and home af-fairs policies; the nation currently has an opt-out on these issues. The defeat is a blow for the Danish government who had campaigned for a Yes but gives another fillip to the anti-EU, anti-immigration Danish People’s party who shocked the elite by coming second in June’s elec-tions. The technical nature of the referendum and voters’ complaints of insufficient information hindered the Yes campaign. But the vote was also deeply affected by the refugee crisis and the Paris terror attacks.

OSTRAVA ASKS FOR AIR LINK TO FINLANDPRAGUE (E15) – North Moravia’s “capital” Ostrava is working to in-troduce direct flights from Mošnov Airport to Helsinki. The members of the regional assembly in December agreed that North Moravia is prepared to support the establishment of an air link Ostrava-Hel-sinki financially. “We need direct flights to Finland because the Nor-dic country’s economy is focusing on businesses that are pivotal to North Moravia,” regional governor Miroslav Novák (Soc. Dem.) com-mented. The Finnish IT company Tieto is one of the largest employ-ers in North Moravia. The introduction of new international air links must be authorized by the European Commission.

NORDIC CHAMBER eNEWSLETTER CHAMBER STARTS NEW BOARD ELECTION

JANUARY 2016

Last year’s online voting of new Board members proved to be an unquestioned

improvement, with twice as many Chamber members casting their votes compared to earlier years. New we are starting the on-line voting process of 11 new Board mem-bers for the period 2016-17. Until the end of January members who are interested in becoming a Board Director are asked to use the application form on our website to register their candidacy. Throughout Feb-ruary the online voting will take place. At our AGM in early March the winners will be announced. For more information please contact Executive Director Lea Turcarová at info@nordicchamber.cz (TBE)

The Norwegian consumer goods giant Orkla has acquired the Moravian food

maker Hamé for EUR 175 million. Orkla already owns the Czech dry food producer Vitana, the Austrian company Felix and Orkla Foods Romania. “A stronger posi-tion in Central Europe will provide space for our further growth in these markets,” com-mented Atle Vidar Nagel-Johansen, Orkla´s executive vice president. Thanks to the take-over, Orkla will double its turnover in Central Europe. Hamé in 2014 had CZK 4.9 billion in sales; net profit reached CZK 234 million. Around 70 percent of the sales came from the Czech Republic and Slovakia. (ČTK)

Tieto Czech, an IT development center wholly owned by Tieto of Finland, has

won a major contract with the Finnish gov-ernment. Under the contract, which is worth CZK 6 billion, Ostrava-based Tieto Czech’s

experts will be supplying a secured private cloud for Finnish ministries and govern-ment agencies. Extreme security measures were a part of Tieto Czech’s winning bid.

“Access control, camera surveillance and encrypted communication – the security level is at a completely different level than with supplies for the private sector,” general manager Petr Lukasík says. With 2,000 em-ployees Tieto Czeh is the biggest IT com-pany in North Moravia. (Právo)

Santa Trans, a subsidiary of the lead-ing Czech soft drink producer Kofola,

has acquired fire brand new Scania G340 Streamline trucks. The engines of the Swedish-produced trucks are fuelled by compressed natural gas (CNG). The Sca-nias will distribute soft drinks all over the Czech Republic from Kofola’s factories in Krnov and Mníchovo Hradiště. “The net of CNG filling stations in the Czech Republic is not very dense, but it is more than suf-ficient for our needs,” says general direc-tor Jiří Hartmann. According to Mr Hart-mann, Santa Trans will in the coming years increase the number of CNG trucks in its company fleet. (SCA)

Czech police are investigating a CZK 50 million-subsidy from the EU’s tourism

fund granted to the Čápí Hnízdo resort owned by Finance Minister Andrej Babiš’ Agrofert holding. The Čápí Hnízdo is a luxurious re-sort 50 kilometres south of Prague. Shortly before the subsidy application was filed in 2008, Agrofert issued bearer shares that hid the real owner. Only in 2014, when bearer

shares were banned by a new law, Agrofert became the official owner again. The EU subsidy was intended for small and medium-sized businesses; as a part of Agrofert Čápí Hnízdo might not have been eligible for the EU funds. (ČTK)

In November last year Hewlett-Packard split into two parts. Our part, which will

use a new corporate logo, is called Hewlett Packard Enterprise. We make IT environ-

ments more efficient, productive and secure, enabling fast, flexible responses to a rapidly changing competitive landscape. We enable organizations to act quickly on ideas by de-livering infrastructure that can be easily composed and recomposed to meet shifting demands, so they can lead in today’s market-place of disruptive innovation. Hewlett Pack-ard Enterprise is a leading enterprise-focused IT solutions company providing its customer with IT infrastructure (servers, storage, net-working, consulting and support) Software and Services. It can also enable organization fast implementations using the arm of its Financial Services group. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Hewlett Packard Enter-prise has 252,000 employees worldwide.

Bedřich Luft HPE Czech Republic

MEET OUR MEMBER

General Partner of the Nordic Chamber of Commerce

A ll employees of the LEGO Group will in January receive an extra

month’s salary along with their regular pay cheque. According to LEGO’s press officer Roar Rude Trangbæk the money should not be viewed as a bonus but as a special payment for the great results the LEGO concern has achieved over the past 10 years. The company’s regular bo-nuses will be paid out as usual in March. More than 17,000 employees worldwide will receive the extraordinary present. In September, LEGO reported a turnover of 14.1 billion kroner – an 18 percent in-crease compared to the same period last year. (BT)

Icewind, a start-up founded by four young Icelandic entrepreneurs, has

raised enough money to begin building wind turbines that will be installed at bus stops in Iceland. Here, they will power the lighting, heating, wifi, and mobile device charging units. The first installa-tion is slated to go up on the stop in front of Harpa centre in downtown Reykjavík. The Icewind group has generated capital for their project partly through a crowd-funding site. In the future Icewind would

also like to see wind turbines generat-ing electricity for summerhouses in the countryside, as well as on communica-tion towers, which rely heavily on diesel oil. (Icenews)

According to a poll by Taloustutki-mus market researchers over 54 per-

cent of Finns still support membership in the Eurozone; 31 percent would like to give up the common currency. At the same time a large proportion of respond-ents said they believed the economy would perform better without the euro. According to research director Juho Rahkonen the Finns support the euro for other reasons that are not entirely eco-nomic. “There is also a powerful emo-tional side to this. The euro is a kind of community after all and that has some value,” Rahkonen said. “Another reason is the benefits it offers for travelling in Europe.” (YLE)

The China-focused consortium that bought bankrupt automaker Saab –

and bet on going all electric – unveiled its first major deal in December: an USD 12 billion order for electric cars for a Chi-nese leasing company. The single order for 250,000 electric vehicles, including 150,000 cars based on the Saab 9-3 se-dan, appeared to be all but unprecedent-ed. There were just 665,000 electric cars

in the world and 83,000 in China as of the end of 2014. National Electric Ve-hicle Sweden said it would swiftly hire hundreds of workers in Sweden to start building cars for Panda New Energy, a Chinese firm that leases zero-emis-sion vehicles to chauffeur-driven fleets. (Reuters)

Norway’s pipeline gas exports to Eu-rope in 2015 hit a fresh annual re-

cord high of 107.9 billion cubic metres,

preliminary data from the Norwegian gas system operator Gassco show. This surpassed the previous record high of 107.6 bcm reached in 2012. Norway’s gas exports rose in 2015 due to higher output at its key gas field Troll, operated by Statoil. Gassco’s data excludes Nor-wegian exports of liquefied natural gas from its Arctic Snøhvit plant. Norway in 2014 passed Russia as the largest suppli-er of natural gas to Western Europe; Rus-sia’s total share of the EU’s gas market remains four percentage points bigger. (Reuters)

THE KORUNA-CROWN-EURO INDEXEnd XII/2015 End XI/2015

Euro 27,025 CZK 27,025 CZKDanish kroner 3,621 " 3,622 "Icelandic krónur 0,191 " 0,191 "Norwegian kroner 2,813 " 2,941 "Swedish kronor 2,940 " 2,924 "� Source:�ČNB

MIGRANTS BOOST NORDIC WORKFORCE 2014 2015 y/y%

1. Czech Republic 1,145 1,245 108.72. Denmark 14,680 41,124 280.13. Finland 3,620 36,244 1001.26. Norway 13,205 65,462 495.78. Sweden 81,180 308,275 379.7

�Asylum�applicants� �Source:�Eurostat/NYT

NORDIC CHAMBER eNEWSLETTER MOST FINNS STILL HAVE FAITH IN THE EURO

JANUARY 2016

Date Event Venue21 Jan BB: A new legislation on public procurement in the Czech Republic Hilton Prague Old Town

January New Years drink TBC18 Feb Meet Our Member: Comfortcare Kloknerova 1, 148 00 Praha 11

For more details please see www.nordicchamber.cz/events. If you want more information about the Chamber’s activities please don’t hesitate to contact us at info@nordicchamber.cz or telephone +420 774 123 370.

UPCOMING CHAMBER EVENTS