Every 12th businessman in the Czech Republic is a foreigner
According to the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, almost three-quarters of businessmen are foreigners from Ukraine, Vietnam and Slovakia. In recent years, the number of Germans who have started their own business in the Czech Republic has been slowly but steadily growing.
"Most often, citizens of other states who have decided to do business in the Czech Republic live and work in the Central Bohemian Region and in Prague, the average age of a foreign entrepreneur ranges between 25 and 50 years. There is practically no layer of young businessmen aged 18-20 who would open their own spin-offs or startups," explains Karel Gavlichek, a member of the board of the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises of the Czech Republic. According to him, business of almost all foreigners in the Czech Republic is profitable. They successfully fill white spots in the market, especially in retail trade and translation services.
According to the association's research, the share of businessmen with foreign passports in the Czech Republic is higher than in other countries of the Visegrad Group, and amounts to 8.6 percent of the total number of entrepreneurs in the Czech Republic. Only three percent of them are engaged in catering or hotel business. Each nationality dominates a certain market segment: Vietnamese are specialists in retail trade, while Ukrainian firms are most often engaged in construction business, and Russian entrepreneurs are active in the market of educational and translation services.
According to Pavla Brzhechkova, deputy chairman of the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, the number of businessmen from EU countries is also slowly growing in the Czech Republic.