News

Elite troops from the Prostejov military base are preparing for a new mission in Afghanistan, Military Intelligence Service director Ondrej Palenik said during an inspection visit to the base by U.S. Ambassador Richard Graber. If the Czech government and Parliament approve the mission the Prostejov unit would most likely operate in the south or east of Afghanistan. During its Afghan mission last year, the unit took part in more than 30 combat operations and received high praise for its performance. Ambassador Graber said that today the Czech unit was comparable to the US army's special forces.

Former deputy local development minister Petr Forman has rejected accusations of EU funds fraud during his time in office. The former deputy minister and nine other people have been charged with taking over a government agency created to funnel EU funds with the sole target of acquiring the cash in its account. The state prosecutor in the case said that by paying one million crowns for the agency the accused had gained access to 144 million crowns then in the account. The accused, who face jail sentences of between five and twelve years, have all pleaded not guilty.

A new survey suggests that Czechs go to the doctor more frequently and use more unnecessary medicines than most other European nations. The research carried out by the Fakta agency found that Czechs pay an average of nearly 16 visits to their doctor per year, which is around twice the rate of neighbouring countries such as Austria and Germany. According to the analysis more than 20 billion Czech crowns or around 1 billion US dollars are annually squandered in the health service due to a waste of resources and corruption. The survey was commissioned by the government, which wants to use it as the basis for an all-party debate on future funding for the public healthcare system.

The Czech Ministry of Trade and Industry has announced that the investment-development agency Czech Invest and the export-support agency Czech Trade will pool the resources of their foreign networks as of the beginning of next year. The move will see both agencies use a combined network of foreign offices to provide services to foreign investors and exporters.

The Minister for Trade and Industry Martin Riman stressed that both agencies were not merging but simply operating out of one office in territories where the two of them are represented. He added that the measure was being implemented as part of the government's long-term plans to streamline Czech economic diplomacy and that combining resources in this way would save the country 12-15 million Czech crowns per year.

Czech Invest currently has 9 foreign offices while Czech Trade has 32.The cities where both agencies will use the same office are Cologne, Paris, London, Dublin, Brussels, Rotterdam, Chicago and Chengdu.