Special focus 1 Czech Reoublic: Regional focus - Czech Republic

摘要

In the first of two articles looking at new European Union countries Jan Dolezil of AxFlow s.r.o. Prague discusses the market for pump manufacturers in Eastern Europe. While opportunities are abundant gaining access to markets and then securing long term business takes planning and investment. The expansion of the European Union to 25 countries has been instrumental in removing barriers to trade and created the world's largest single market with all countries working to the same rules. Many of the accession countries are from Eastern Europe and it is here that many business opportunities are opening as single market standards are enforced. For pump manufacturers and distributors, the good news is that these countries have already begun reforming their economies and growth is expected to continue at a faster rate than the ED average for several years to come. Furthermore, these countries are now starting to benefit from EU aid allocated for the development of the environmental and industrial infrastructures (Figure 1). Jan Dolezil, managing director of AxFlow s.r.o. in the Czech Republic capital, Prague, is ideally placed to talk about the opportunities that are emerging and to provide advice and guidance to would be exporters to former Eastern Bloc countries. As a distributor of pumps manufactured by such companies as Bredel, Warren Rupp, Viking, Johnson Pump UK, Mono and Watson Marlow, AxFlow Group has a substantial base, not just in the Czech Republic but in many other parts of Eastern Europe.