PM presents crisis-management plan to Parliament

Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek on Wednesday presented the government’s crisis management plan to deputies in the lower house, urging broad support for the package of measures aimed at alleviating the impact of the crisis on the Czech economy. The stimulus plan, which was made with the help of the country’s top financial experts, envisages higher government spending on education and research, cutting firms’ social security costs when they employ new graduates, and contracting out the upkeep of the country’s infrastructure to private enterprises, among other things. The opposition Social Democrats have criticized the proposed measures as being “too little, too late”.