Czech Prime Minister Sobotka and Slovenian Prime Minister Cerar team up to launch the Czech-Slovenian Digital Business Forum

On Monday 23 January 2017, Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka and Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar together open the Czech-Slovenian Digital Business Forum at the ŠKODA DigiLab in Prague. Attended by representatives of Czech and Slovenian companies from the automotive industry, including Škoda Auto board chairman Bernhard Maier, the forum centred on new trends in automotive industry digitisation and their application in the crafting of new mobility and connectivity services for smart cities.

Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka’s address at the Czech-Slovenian Digital Business Forum

Dear Prime Minister Cerar, Mr Maier, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Thank you for this opportunity to quickly say hello and say a few words about digitisation – and especially smart solutions – in the Czech Republic.

One of the Czech Government’s priorities is the digital agenda, and not just within our own national borders, because we need to grasp the agenda of a digital single market as one of the key priorities of the European Union’s economic policy. Naturally, digitisation is also a topic for discussion with our partners within the EU. And, indeed, that is precisely what I have talked about today with the Prime Minister of Slovenia.

Generally speaking, I believe that the concept of smart cities and smart solutions is vital to the digitisation process. In the Czech Republic, though this concept is still in its infancy, we are fortunate to see increasing numbers of towns and municipalities getting involved and devising projects that will make our cities smarter. To lend our support to this trend, we and our private-sector partners are preparing a competition called Smart Address in a bid to raise awareness among towns and cities of the need for digitisation.

We must leverage advanced technologies in order to deliver a better quality of life to citizens because digitisation touches on all areas of our everyday lives, including the environment, energy and transport, a sphere where we have already heralded e-mobility and modern methods of paying for parking and public transport fares.

Consequently, it is the Government’s job to champion the propagation of smart solutions and to try to spotlight the many projects that have already surfaced.

What makes the concept of smart cities and solutions unique is that they engage the local population, local government bodies, and also the private sector, and in this respect I am keen to express my gratitude to companies such as Škoda Auto for helping to develop smart solutions.

Modern technology has witnessed extremely progressive advances. Proof of this can be seen in the successful testing of self-drive vehicles as the future of passenger transport, something that was inconceivable just a few years ago.

As far as the Czech Government is concerned, it is up to us to spur this development and do our utmost to ensure that citizens see improvements in their lives thanks to modern technologies.

Ladies and gentlemen,

I would like to thank Škoda for this opportunity, and I have high hopes that digitisation and collaboration in this field will prove to be an abiding element in the furtherance of Czech-Slovenian economic relations. Thank you very much.