With the opening of the IBA Group’s development centre, the value of supported sophisticated investments in Brno has exceeded CZK 1 billion.

With CzechInvest’s assistance, the city of Brno has obtained investments in applied research and business support services valued at over CZK 1 billion in recent years. The latest such project is the development centre of IBA Group, which has invested more than CZK 50 million in new office spaces and is planning to employ approximately 100 IT specialists by 2010.

“Brno is among the cities with the highest per capita concentration of university students in the world. This naturally makes the city attractive to a range of demanding investors looking for talented people who are able to make maximum use of modern technologies,” says Alexandra Rudysarova, acting CEO of CzechInvest, explaining Brno’s popularity among domestic as well as foreign investors.

“With aid from the specialised Framework Programme for the Support of Technology Centres and Centres of Business Support Services administered by CzechInvest, twenty-five companies have undertaken to employ 3,969 people in projects worth CZK 1.068 billion. We are dealing with other companies regarding further investments in Brno,” says Rudysarova.

The government programme to support technology centres is being used by IBA, which opened its development centre last week. “In the Czech Republic, IBA will continue with investments in the sector of modern IT technologies, which are in accordance with IBA Group’s strategy, respond to clients’ growing demands and correspond to the goals of CzechInvest’s development program in which IBA CZ is participating,” said Sergei Levteev, president of IBA Group, on the occasion of the Brno centre’s opening.

IBA Group currently employs more than 2,000 specialists around the world and already has three branches in the Czech Republic. IBA CZ’s first development centre was established in Prague in 1999. The company expanded to Brno six years later. IBA Group also transferred its headquarters to the Czech Republic in 2005.

The Framework Programme for the Support of Technology Centres and Centres of Business Support Services assists firms that want to invest in industrial research and development, design or services in the Czech Republic. “Since 2000, the programme has been used by 137 domestic and foreign companies, which have undertaken to invest CZK 18.417 billion and to create 20,520 jobs in the most demanding sectors,”says Alexandra Rudysarova. The first supported investment, IBM’s IT centre, was in Brno.