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Current AffairsProducers capitalise on Czech "brand nostalgia"
The Czech Republic seems to have been hit by a wave of brand nostalgia. If
you owned a car before 1989, it was most probably a Skoda, you wore Botas
shoes, a Prim watch, cooked your dinner in a Remoska portable oven, chewed
on Pedro chewing gum and did your washing with the so-called Stag soap.
Skoda is one of only a few traditional trademarks that have successfully
survived the influx of western brands and products after the fall of
communism. Many other household names succumbed to the tough competition,
but in recent years old brands have been re-emerging as producers realise
they can capitalise on people's nostalgia after they have become saturated
with international brands.
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Business NewsBusiness News
In Business News: over a billion dollars worth of PPPs are planned, says a
Finance Ministry official; farmers want the next government to halt the
continual decline in output in their industry; Czech tourists spent more
money on holidays at home than abroad in 2005; and the biggest factory
outlet in the country should open at Prague airport next year.
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Current AffairsZikmund and Hanzelka's legendary Tatra 87 car added to cultural heritage list
As of the 1st of January a few more items will be added to the national
cultural heritage list. Among other monuments, the government has decided
to include the bells of Prague's St Vitus' Cathedral, the television tower
on Jested Mountain - one of the few architectural masterpieces of the
communist era - a number of medieval manuscripts and also a collection of
historic automobiles. The most famous among them is probably the legendary
Tatra 87, in which the popular post-war explorers, Miroslav Zikmund and
Jiri Hanzelka travelled around the world.
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Business NewsBusiness briefs
Swedish broadcaster MTG reported buyer of TV Prima; CME pays $119m for
Galaxie Sport channel; EIB to lend Czech Republic some $167m towards
highway construction; Government approves $207m military truck contract
with Tatra; Airlines to pay more for flyovers; Czech-based drugs maker
Zentiva buys into Romania's Sicomed for $200m
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Letter from PragueOf foreigners and perception of reality
So many times in the Letter from Prague, my foreign colleagues have
expressed their views of differences, big and small, between what they had
been used to before moving to Prague and the Czech reality. Different
aspects of life in the Czech Republic seem to never cease taking
foreigners by surprise - from the cuisine to city transport to mail
delivery. But there is a huge difference in the perception of the gravity
of different issues in this country, even in foreigners who have been here
for a substantial period of time. Something a Czech may take for a trifle,
a foreigner would say: "Hey, that's such an interesting aspect."
It isn't my dear, believe me.
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Business NewsBusiness News
Coalition parties at odds over another tax hike. The railway trade unions
are planning a strike in protest at mass redundancies. Stock brokers from
the European Union are becoming interested in membership of the Prague
Stock Exchange. Czech truck production decreased in 2003. The tractor
maker Zetor is on the verge of bankruptcy. OKD mulls acquisition of Polish
competitors. Czech travel agents report record sales for 2003. Number of
importers from China may go out of business for failing to apply in time
for a licence. Russian industrial group interested in subsidiaries of
Czech engineering firm Skoda Holding.
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