Blue events

Czech Construction Forum 2011

Dear participants of the Czech Construction Forum,

We got over the 7th year of the Czech Construction Forum, which was held on 1st March 2011 in Prague hotel Olympik Artemis and a record number of 300 construction resort representatives confirmed the necessity of dialogue between experts and state administration representatives. Most people present did not hide their nervousness from controversial steps of the government towards the sector that has a significant influence on employment rate, being a distinct indicator of the whole state economy.

At the beginning the Prime Minister Petr Nečas tried to dispel the common opinion that state administration is “crimping” the construction sector and acts in uncoordinated way. He admitted seriousness of the situation and promised the government would participate in solving these issues. In the following presentation President of the Czech Association of Building Entrepreneurs Václav Matyáš confirmed the start of such dialogue and he openly confessed the conclusions of the last Forum were not fulfilled and both sides have a hard work ahead in coming weeks. If the growth of VAT from 10 to 20 percent and other notified changes come true, there will be more than 50 000 unemployed people by the end of the year just in the construction sector itself.

The role of the foreign conference guests, the Managing Director of ECI Frank Kehlenbach and the representative of Association of Czech Companies operating in Germany Josef Hladik, was mainly to inspire the auditorium with west-European experience and to give another dimension to the discussed critical development. Possibly the most debated topic of this part was an approach of European countries to the possible entry of third countries on EU construction market and consequences of such development. The best evaluated presentations, according to the questionnaire as well as according to immediate reactions came in the conclusion of the morning session. Václav Pavelka from Native PR and Josef Kotrba from advisory company Deloitte named unadorned truth about reasons of stagnation and bad image of the Czech construction sector and they suggested directions in which it is possible to stop this downgrade.

Possibly the most expected part of the conference was the following panel discussion led by Martin Veselovský from Český rozhlas. Key representatives of construction and development companies reminded the present representatives of three ministries that if the political representation does not fiercely change its behavior and continues to make partial impetuous steps with possible long-term negative consequences, it will significantly damage the economic balance of the whole state. Fractionalism of the construction agenda into five (!) ministries does surely not play up to optimistic development.

In the following afternoon part in four parallel sessions there were discussed specific questions, such as development of the civil engineering, transportation infrastructure, sustainable construction and building site planning. Even here the atmosphere of each session was strongly influenced by political aspects. The outcome of the sessions will be part of the accepted conference conclusions, which will be officially addressed to the Czech Government and respective ministries via organizers.

The conference raised many media returns, incl. presence of Czech television news staff.

We also thank you for your comments given in questionnaires. based on them we will prepare the program of 8th year which will be held on 6th March 2012 in Prague.

Ing. Václav Matyáš
President
Association of Building Entrepreneurs
of the Czech Republic

Antonín Parma
General Manager
Blue Events

Program 2011

8.30 -9.00	REGISTRATION
9.00-11.00	A. CONSTRUCTION AND RECESSION: Where are we, when and how to pull through?	Chaired by: Martin Veselovský, moderator, Český rozhlas
	1. Opening of the forum	Petr Nečas, Prime Minister, ČR
	2. Evaluating after a year (conclusions of the last forum vs. reality	Václav Matyáš, President, SPS ČR
	3. Experiences of the European Construction Industry in abroad - what can be done for the industry?	Frank Kehlenbach, General Manager, EIC and Managing Director, SNSP
	4. Where is the Czech construction - view from abroad	Josef Hladik, Honorary President, Association of Czech companies in Germany
	5. Does the Czech construction market deserve its reputation?	Václav Pavelka, Managing Partner, Native PR
	6. Quo vadis construction sector?	Josef Kotrba, Office Managing Partner, Deloitte
11.00-11.30	COFFEE / TEA BREAK
11.30–13.00	B. SOLUTION PROPOSALS: What can be done to support the Czech construction market development?	Chaired by: Martin Veselovský, moderator, Český rozhlas
	Panelists: Vít Bárta, Minister of Transport ČR Kamil Jankovský, Minister for Local Development ČR Evžen Korec, President of the Board and General Manager, Ekospol Miloslav Mašek, General Manager, SPS ČR Radim Passer, President of the Board, PasserInvest Pavel Pilát, General Manager, Metrostav Zbyšek Sochor, Mining Department Director, Ministry of Industry and Trade Michal Štefl, General Manager, OHL ŽS Brno František Vaculík, President of the Board and General Manager, PSJ a.s.
13.00-14.30	BUSINESS LUNCH
14.30–16.30	C. PARALEL PANEL DISCUSSIONS
	SECTION C1 What and how will we build in civil engineering? Chaired by: Pavel Pilát, General Manager, Metrostav	SECTION C2 Sustainable construction Chaired by: Robert Kazda, General Manager, Rigips and Miroslav Linhart, Senior Manager, Deloitte
	Topics: In which segment of civil engineering the demand will be recovered first? What will be the situation in apartment construction? Will we build again flats for sale or for rent? How will the EC instruction on low-energy buildings influence the civil engineering? Panelists: Miroslav Kalous, Deputy-Minister, Ministry for Local Development ČR Petr Kazda, President of the Board, HELIKA, a.s. Evžen Korec, President of the Board and General Manager, Ekospol František Vaculík, President of the Board and General Manager, PSJ Holding	Topics: How will new principles of construction influence construction after crisis? How far is ČR behind Europe in implementing principles of sustainable construction and why? What new materials and technologies will be needed? Panelists: Rut Bízková, Deputy-Minister, Ministry of Environment ČR Milan Machatka, President of the Board, Guild for heat cladding Jiří Sobola, Company Director, TZÚS Praha Libor Urbášek, Marketing Director, Saint-Gobain Isover CZ
	SECTION C3 Transportation infrastructure Chaired by: Pavel Švagr, HR Director, České dráhy	SECTION C4 Bulding site planning and the role of architect and designer Chaired by: Jaroslav Dokoupil, Main Architect, Arch.Design Group and Managing Partner, Arch.Design
	Topics: How is it necessary to proceed in setting priorities in transportation infrastructure? How to guarantee its continuous funding? Are PPP projects the solution for gaining financial sources and under what conditions? Panelists: Josef Hlavička, Partner, Havel & Holásek Petr Laušman, Business Director, MEDIS Holding Gustav Slamečka, Director, SFDI Luděk Sosna, Strategy Department Director, Ministry of Transport ČR Marek Svoboda, Director, Pragoprojekt Michal Štefl, General Manager, OHL ŽS Brno Jiří Švorc, General Manager, ŘSD Jindřich Topol, Executive Director of Railway Engineering Department, Skanska a.s.	Topics: How to improve the expert level of planning of towns and villages? How to remove current flaws of building sites planning which are delaying construction preparations and and raising the price? What is the conceptual role of designers and architects in area of building site plannings?? Panelists: Jan Fibiger, Director, Nadace ABF, President, SIA Luboš Kočí, Director, Multi Development Czech Republic Jana Machačková, Building Rules Department, Ministry for Local Development ČR Peter Marec, Infrastructure Division at Ground Planning department, Ministry of Transport ČR Pavel Němec, Expert Director for Strategy and Acquisitions, Skanska Jan Vrana, President, Chamber of architects
16.30-17.00	CONFERENCE CONCLUSIONS