INESS

Automotive industry plays one of the most important roles in economies of the Visegrad Group countries. The sector became the regional leader in export and a reason for close ties among countries. Hyundai Kia in the Czech Republic and Slovakia is a textbook example of how one company ignores artificial national borders.

An example of innovation is a standardized cargo container. Today, there are more than 20 million of these containers around the globe and we move practically everything in them. This innovation from the late sixties completely changed the world.

In 2017, INESS launched a series of informal economic discussions called Ekonomické reči (Econtalks). Seven events were organized so far and more than 420 guests altogether visited the evening forum. First Econtalks were held by Radovan Ďurana in March.

In 2016, the Institute of Economic and Social Studies (INESS) from Slovakia decided to fill the gap and the Bureaucracy Index was born. In collaboration with experts from different areas, INESS identified and analyzed all the administrative tasks that the state requires from a model SME company.

French President Emmanuel Macron has embarked on a mission to Central and Eastern Europe with a strange idea. He lobbies for a directive to shorten the stay and to increase the salaries of our posted workers, from the minimum wage level, to salaries equal up to the level of French or German employees in the sector.

Imagine a world in which everything has to be approved by the parliament, and only then that thing might actually happen. In such a world, there would be no innovations. In a different kind of world, things change first and the laws follow. Recently, the news that the General Advocate has advised the Court of Justice of the EU to recognize Uber as […]

Restrictions on cash payments are in place in many countries around the world and an EU-wide restriction is looming. However, cash plays a number of important roles in the economy. To counter the one-sided public discussion about cash, INESS published in English Why to Keep the Cash Economy.

INESS has been one of the few opponents of the regulation. We included the abolition of the cash payment restrictions in our long-term competitiveness program Top20. Also, thanks to our advocacy, the (currently) biggest opposition party included a partial easing of the regulations (rising the EUR 5,000 limit to EUR 15,000) in its 2016 election program.

This should be the first commandment of every regulator. Or at the very least, forbidding should not be their first step. All over the world, many governments which have imposed a ban on sharing economy do not respect this rule. They shoot first and ask questions later.

Many other Western entertainment producers have also found their new homes in Chinese industrial enterprises. The movie studio which produced the Dark Knight trilogy was bought by a real estate magnate from Beijing for $3.5 billion. Since 2015, up to 70% of acquisitions of gaming companies reportedly have a Chinese buyer.