The Czech Republic is certainly a land with a potential to spearhead an industry. The Czech
Republic (CR) has many good qualities, although there are some areas which need
improvements. This essay will outline a vision of the possible future Czech icons.
In the last decade many Czech companies went bankrupt. There are some textile and shoe
manufacturers in the CR, but they will not survive beside cheap products from China. The
food-processing industry is sinking; it is hard to compete with the prices of apples from
Poland or with cheap yogurt from Germany. We are not an agricultural land, our wine is
popular but not widely distributed and the growth of wineyards will be highly restricted by
EU regulations. We will certainly continue to grow crops, but in the near future our exports
will not exceed our imports - with the exception of hops products. The chemical and rubber
industry is a vulnerable group too, because all the factories must be updated to satisfy the
European environmental policy. Our atomic and thermal power stations still work but they
must meet the environmental regulations as well. Today, energy can be an icon only if it deals
with new resources, such as solar and wind energy. There is a hydroelectric system on the
Vltava River but the output is only 4% of total energy production. Our coal mines are slowly
closing, and besides coal, we do not have any outstanding mineralogical sources.
On the other hand, we still continue an industrial tradition based on mechanical engineering,
and there is strong demand for our raw products in Germany, England, and the U.S.
Mechanical engineering will keep our republic at the highest level of world competition. Our
automobile industry is among the best in the world, but our infrastructure needs improvement.
We can model our road infrastructure after those of Belgium or Slovenia. As the heart of
Europe, the CR will be an important crossroad and we have to prepare the conditions; both for
“clients” - to build quality road infrastructure and for “locals” - to establish the laws
concerning vehicle emissions, vehicle conditions, and highway fees.
Tourist trade has been and will continue to be a big fraction of our economy. We are known
through Czech writers and the historic city of Prague with its cultural events such as Prague
Spring. From 1989 we also have a promising pool of creativity (e.g. Smetana’s Litomyšl
festival, Lenka Klodová). Tourism is inseparably connected with Bohemia crystal and that
means that our glass works will thrive.
Finally, the future of our land depends on the education system. We have to increase our
world participation. The research at the universities should be more cooperative with research
institutions. Professors and companies have to motivate the students at schools and
universities to be more competitive internationally. Our country still offers free education so
we have a good potential to produce many educated engineers. We have a natural advantage
in young thinking people, because clever young people have the ability to change the old
systems. Unfortunately, there is a magical chain - universities do not have money, and our
education is not yet networked with that of other countries. We do not publish our results as
aggressively as our western colleagues do. Funding for scientific magazines in libraries is
missing and it can happen that we develop algorithms or systems which are already known in
other countries.
The future icons of the CR can be tourist trade with a healthy road infrastructure, mechanical
engineering industry, original culture events, and specialized software. Time will show which
of them can bring the best name for the CR. For this to occur, we must improve the education
system and find honest investors. And who knows, maybe one day we will send a Czech
satellite to space.
