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Can business services be the driving force for structural change in Czech economy?

6. 11. 2020

The business services sector has the potential to become one of the engines of the Czech economy. According to the association ABSL, which brings companies in the field of shared business services together, 180,000 employees will have worked in this sector by 2025. In comparison, 133,000 employees worked in the automotive industry last year according to the association AutoSAP. Unlike other industries, business services can operate entirely in a digital environment and bring innovation to all areas of business. Therefore, at the time of the coronavirus outbreak, companies in business sector were less affected than other.

As the 3rd most important business center after Prague and Brno, business services also play an increasingly powerful role in Ostrava’s economy. At the moment, the sector employs more than 11,000 people and is growing steadily. The largest employers include companies such as TietoEVRY , Okin BPS, Verizon, Siemens, AutoCont CZ, or ABB.

The growing importance is also confirmed by Jonathan Appleton, Director of ABSL: “The local centres will play a bigger role in the core business of parent companies and function as knowledge centres that provide added value, or participate in digitization and other transformation processes.

MSID, which handles promotion of Ostrava in the Czech Republic and abroad, supports the growth of business services in the Moravian-Silesian Region. The first success of MSID is assisting in setting the new branch office of Devoteam which created 20 new jobs in 2020 and plans to hire another 100 employees next year.

In addition to traditional financial, personnel or marketing services, the field of business services also includes more sophisticated services such as the support and development of IT solutions, introduction of robotic process automation or data analytics. The business services thus have the potential to transform the Czech Republic from a traditional manufacturing economy with cheap labour to a country with modern and innovative services with high added value, providing job opportunities to university graduates.

The growing importance of business services is addressed in a study by ABSL that will be presented in detail at an online conference between 10 and 12 November 2020.

MSID have created materials mapping local potential for success as part of promoting Ostrava as a destination suitable for business services. You can check them out here: