Foreigner's Health Insuarance in Czech Republic

AXA Assistance CZ provides

• Foreigner´s Health Insurance for Necessary and Urgent Care
• Comprehensive Health Insurance for Foreigners

Purchasing power of Prague region is 6th in Europe by Eurostat

Eurostat issued statistics on purchasing power or in other words GDP per inhabitant for European regions. GDP per inhabitant provides a measure of the total economic activity in a region and may be used to compare the degree of economic development of regions

Prague was in the ten first places among 40 different regions exceeding 125% European average. Prague with 172% of average finished 6th after Inner London in the UK (343% ), the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (279%), Brussels in Belgium (216%), Groningen in the Netherlands (198%), Hamburg in Germany (188%).

Prague is also the wealthiest region in Central and Eastern Europe.

Prague is crime heaven

Aktualne.cz published a comparison between crime in Prague, Czech regions and Vienna.

Detection rate of crimes was only 18% in Prague and was up to 64% in some Czech regions, and about 43 - 57% in Vienna region.

Detection rate of murders was 86% in Prague in comparison with 100% in Vienna.


Stealing cars seems to be Czech specialty with about 12 thousand cars stolen. There were about 2.6 thousand cars stolen in Austria last year.

Prague is the second to do business in Central Europe

According to a study by Roland Berger Strategy Consultants published by iHned.cz Prague is the second in the ranking of best cities to do business in Central Europe. At the head of the ranking was Vienna and the third was Budapest.

The study assessed the business environment based on 24 criteria in the areas of infrastructure, education, innovation, international environment, the quality of the environment and culture.


Densely interlinked network of public transport and urban culture helped Prague achieve one of the highest rankings. In contrast, heavy pollution, the noise and accessibility for handicapped remain main weaknesses.

Rank / City
1. Vienna
2. Prague
3. Budapest
4. Ljubljana
5. Moscow
6. Warsaw
7. Bratislava
8. Bucharest
9. Kiev
10. Zagreb
Source: Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, iHned.cz

Top manager salaries in Prague

ČEZ (energy), CEO - 22M CZK a month - Martin Roman, 274M for the last year

České dráhy (railways), CEO - 500 000 CZK - Petr Žaluda

ČEPRO (oil), CEO - 300 000 CZK - Jiří Borovec

Česká pošta (post), CEO - 250 000 CZK - Petr Sedláček

Česká spořitelna (bank), CEO/directors - about 1.13 M CZK

ČSOB (bank), CEO/directors - about 1M CZK

The numbers are based on publicly available information and this article on nova.cz

Related Posts:

Salaries in Prague

Pickpockets in Prague

TripAdvisor.com, one of the most famous web sites, published the survey about the number of victims of theft. Prague known as Paradise of pickpockets took the third place in the world ranking with about 6500 thefts reported for the last eight month. The highest number of thefts were reported on the streets of Barcelona and Rome.
In general, narrow streets are very attractive for pickpockets. Charles Bridge, Charles street, tram lines (especially number 22), metro and the city center are most dangerous places. Japanese people need to pay more attention to their belongings, because they are usually the target of pickpockets.
The high number of thefts is definitely one of the reason for the loss of tourist in Prague.

Vacation and public holidays in th Czech Republic

Mercer company published its research about the length of vacation and number of holidays in different countries. The Czech Republic with 20 days of vacation and 12 days of public holidays was in the bottom of the ranking. European countries looked relatively good in comparison to the North American countries. The leader was Lithuania with 41 days in total followed by Finland and France with 40 days in total.
However, the research was based on statutory defined minimum number of days of leave. Some countries do not have this number defined.

Holidays in the Czech Republic

1st January - Day of Restoration of the Independent Czech State
5th July - Cyril and Methodius
28th September - Czech Statehood Day
28th October - Day of the Independent Czech State
17th November - Day of Struggle for Freedom and Democracy

1st January - New Year
Spring - a movable feast - Easter Monday
1st May - Labor Day
24th December - Christmas Day
25th December - Christmas
26th December - Christmas

Czech citizenship law zakon o občanství České republiky

Original Czech version can be found on Wikipedia:

Zákon o nabývání a pozbývání státního občanství České republiky


English version is also published on Wikipedia (slightly differs from Czech one):

Czech nationality law (The Czech Republic citizenship law)


Summary of the requirements for naturalisation:

1. The person has permanent residence in the Czech Republic ( usually recieved after 5 years)
2. Passed Czech language exam
3. The person has one of the following:

• has lived in the Czech Republic for at least 10 years continuously
• was born on the territory of the Czech Republic
• has held Czech citizenship before
• was adopted by a Czech citizen
• his or her spouse is a Czech citizen
• one of his or her parents is a Czech citizen
• has relocated to the Czech Republic before 31 December 1994 based on the invitation of the Czech government
• is stateless
• has the status of refugee in the Czech Republic

Czech version covers all the details, so please, read it here: Zákon o nabývání a pozbývání státního občanství České republiky or Google Translated version of the citizenship law can be found here: Act on the Acquisition and Loss of Citizenship of the Czech Republic

The documents necessary for the application are described in § 8 of the law. Administrative procedures are covered in § 10

The most frequently stolen car is Skoda, Audi is the most risky

According to information published on Centrum.cz portal, CSOB , Allianz and Kooperativa insurance companies and Czech police consider Skoda as the most frequently stolen cars and Audi as the most risky to be stolen.

Bestsellers = most frequently stolen

Skoda

Volkswagen

Renault

Ford

The greatest risk of theft are luxury cars:

Audi

Mercedes

BMW

Alfa Romeo

Almost every thirty from luxury models is stolen

On the contrary, Korean, Japanese and Romanian cars become the target of car thieves less often

Rich people are considered those with income over 60000 CZK

Rich people are considered those who have income over 60 000 CZK per month in accordance with iHned.cz and CTK. More than a third of Czechs believes that rich people are those, whose total assets reached at least ten million Czech crowns CZK. However about one half of the population thinks that rich people should have from one to 5 million CZK in their assets.



Poor people die sooner. Men with the lowest incomes in the Czech Republic under the National Health Institute (SZU) live on average seven years lower age than those from the highest income group, in women this difference is four years.

Poor men often die of cardiovascular diseases, more suffering from ulcer disease and stomach cancer, or diabetes. People with lower incomes also have more affect mental illness and injuries reported in May.

Mandarin Hotel Prague and Madonna

Madonna spent two days in Prague and slept in Mandarin Oriental Hotel Prague. She also secretly celebrated her child birth in Troja chateau.

Mandarin Oriental Hotel Prague is located in a comfortable environment rebuilt from monastery of 14 century, which combines elements of history with the luxury of modern life.

Among other famous hotel guests were, for example, Catherine Z. Jones, Tina Turner, Robert De Niro, Christopher Lee and Kylie Minogue.

Madonna was accomodated in one of the most luxurious hotel appartments on the fifth floor with a large terrace and views on Prague castle. The appartment has two floors with living room in the upper part and bedroom, office and bathroom in the bottom part. It costs about 113 000 CZK per night, what includes 24 hours service and breakfast in bed.

Chef of Mandarin Oriental Hotel Prague, Jiri Stift,
is classified as one of the greatest talents in Prague culinary scene. He holds significant awards in the field of gastronomy. Stift studied in Prague and began a career in the InterContinental Prague hotel. Later he worked on board of the famous ship Queen Elizabeth II. After returning to Prague, he joined the Hotel Radisson SAS Alcron.

Czech Average salary vs Europe and the rest of the World

None will be surprised that the highest salary is in Switzerland. Czech average salary finished on the 24th place last year.

In accordance with research by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and finance.cz Czech average monthly salary was about 23 542 CZK, anually 10 803 EUR what is about one fifth of the average Swiss annual salary of 50 500 EUR, about one fourth of Dutch annual everage salary of 42 363 EUR and about one third of US annual average salary of 29 o62 EUR.

The highest Czech average monthly salary by sector was about 44 000 CZK in financial sector.
People with university education are the most successful and have better salaries. The age group between 43 and 48 years old is the best paid.

The onlly positive number for Czech economy is that Czech average salary is the highest in Eastern Europe.

Clothing and electronics are expensive in CR

In accordance with Eurostat, prices of clothing and electronics in the Czech republic are far above the average in EU. On the contrary prices of food, spirits, soft drinks and tobacco are below average across the EU. The best for purchases of clothing and electronics in the EU is UK. The most expensive. The most expensive clothing is in Finland and the most expensive electronics is on Malta.
The lowest prices for food and non-alcoholic beverages were in Bulgaria and alcohol and tobacco in Romania. Denmark had the most expensive food, soft drinks and tobacco, however, alcoholic beverages were the most expensive in Ireland.
The most expensive country in EU was Denmark, which exceeded other member states by 41 percent. Th Czech republic reached 72 percent of EU average. The cheapest country was Bulgaria.

HP Employer of the year 2009

Hewlett-Packard (HP) acquired Employer of the year 2009 title. Last year winner, T-Mobile is second this year. The third place took Telefonica O2. Results were published by Fincentrum.
HP was also 22nd in the list of top 50 best paying companies in CR with 776 emloyees and average monthly salary of about 82 000 CZK

Microsoft won 'the best company to work for' competion based on employees opinion, followed by Vodafone, Tchibo, Logica and ABB .  Microsoft took also 8th palce in the list of top 50 best paying companies with 193 employees and average monthly salary of 113 066 CZK.  ComAp has been the best among small and medium-sized companies, followed by Aquasoft, Merck, and Bayer GlaxoSmihKline.

Czech roads - global disaster

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development published the list of the world's worst roads (Czech roads - global disaster on tn.cz). Czech roads ended as the nineth worst in the list.
Russia, Slovakia, Poland and Turkey are in the top of the list with the highest number of accidents per million inhabitants.

According to the survey USA, Greece are even worse then Czech Republic.

Czech wages rose by one percent in Q1

Czech Statistical Office reported increase by about  3% in average gross monthly wage in the Czech Republic in the first quarter 2009.
The real wage (compared to inflation) grew by about 1%.

Average gross monthly wage is 22,328 CZK

Czech Republic is between top 20 most peaceful countries

Czech Republic is between the most peaceful countries in the world.
Global Peace Index 2009 ranks the Czech Republic as 11th the most peaceful country in the World. It follows New Zeland, Scandinavian countries, Japan, Austria and Canada.

In my opinion the index missed very imortant aspect which is safety on roads. Czech roads are between the most dangerous roads in the world in accordance with the latest research of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The quality of roads is reasonable in the Czech Republic but the number of accidents per inhabitant is very high due to other reasons, for example, the way of driving, ignorance of traffic rools and quality of cars.

Allegro restaurant Prague recieves Michelin star

Allegro restaurant, Four Season Hotel Prague,  has recieved the Michelin star. It is now the only restaurant in all of Central and Eastern Europe which holds the star after Gordon Ramsay Maze restaurant decided to leave the Czech republic.

Allegro restaurant was named the best restaurant in the Czech Republic for 2006, 2007, 2008 by Zagat Survey.

Lunch and dinner menus feature Mediterranean, Continental and Bohemian specialties.

Related post:

Gordon Ramsay leaves the Czech Republic

Treasures on Prague underground map

Many historical buildings we can see now is just a first floor of old Prague. There are still many remainings underground. The first underground map will be available soon in all info offices.

There is a fragment of old bridge between old city fortifications over the castle moat which can be seen at Mustek metro station. Remainings of Roman empire building can be found in a bookshop in Palladium shopping center

Wages increase in Q4 in Czech Republic

Czech Statistical Office reported increase by 8.3 % in average gross monthly wage in the Czech Republic.
The average gross monthly wage was 25381 in Q4.
The average gross monthly wage was 23542 in 2008. It means rise by 8.5 %.

The real wage (compared to inflation) grew by 2.1%