Prague, March 30 (CTK) – China has showed interest in buying 20 L-410 short-range transport aircraft and 350 light aircraft, costing nearly one billion euros and produced by the Czech firms Aircraft Industries and Evektor, Czech Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek told journalists yesterday.
He said aircraft production followed the Skoda cars that have been a success in China.
According to information from the Czech Presidential Office, Aircraft Industries wants to sell 20 L-410s for 111 million euros and to build a plant producing 18-30 aircraft a year in China that would have Czech subcontractors. According to the contract between Evektor Asia Pacific and Gungdong Longhao Group, 300 EV-55 planes and 50 SSA small aircraft worth 840 million euros would be sold.
Czech and Chinese politicians created a framework that business may enter, Zaoralek said.
This is the result of long-term political effort to open new markets for Czech products, he added.
Zaoralek said Czech food will be sold on the Chinese market.
Entrepreneurs must now decide whether they will transact the businesses, Zaoralek said, adding that this also concerned the plan for the construction of a huge new waterway, the Oder-Danube-Elbe Corridor that would connect the Black Sea, the North Sea and the Baltic Sea in the territory of the landlocked Czech Republic.
Participants in a Chinese-Czech economic forum signed about 30 trade contracts in Prague yesterday, with presidents of the two countries, Xi Jinping and Milos Zeman, attending. The Czech firms involved in the business cooperation include the Skoda Auto car maker, the CEZ energy utility, the J&T investment group and the Czech Export Bank.
Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said it is crucial that the cooperation with China is advantageous for both sides.
“We consider it crucial that these investments boost the economic growth in the Czech Republic,” he told journalists after a cabinet meeting.
Sobotka said the Czech Republic would like to become the seat of Chinese financial institutions for Europe or at least its part.
These institutions would create jobs and pay taxes, he said.
Sobotka said the construction of the Oder-Danube-Elbe Corridor was only possible in a distant future.
