Marielle F., Author at Prague Morning

Statistics show that 15% of the employees who work in the Czech Republic are foreigners, and they constitute a substantial number across various sectors.

In the past decade, from 2010 to 2019, the number of foreigners in the Czech labor market has tripled. Evidently, the Covid-19 crisis had interrupted this growth, but it has only been a temporary stunt.

These figures have been drawn up from statistical records documented by the Czech Statistical Office (ČSÚ).

Dalibor Holý, from the ČSÚ, has commented that the number of employees would not have increased without the presence of foreigners, and he correlates this statement to the fact that many Czech citizens are seniors and past their prime, while young adults and those who are fit to work constitute a much smaller number of the Czech populace.

“From 2010 to 2019 the number of foreign employees increased by 407,000, while the number of Czech employees decreased by 63,000”, said Dalibor.

Industries that have seen a rise in the number of foreign workers include the agriculture and forestry industry, with a rise from 4 to 17% since the past decade.

Meanwhile, in administration, 54% of the workers in 2019 were foreigners. In construction, foreigners now make up 28% of the workers. It was only 14% in 2010. Moreover, in the manufacturing industry, the percentage increased from 6 to 16%.

Foreigners are apparently seeking jobs in education, healthcare, social care, science, information, and communications. “Dominantly foreigners are heading where the language barrier is not important, that is, into the working-class professions”, said Holý.

He’s also stated that there is a group of highly qualified expert foreigners in the Czech Republic in the field of information technology.

In 2020, at the end of the year, labor offices have registered 644,164 foreign employees in the Czech Republic.

Ukrainians, Vietnamese, and Russians constitute the larger numbers of foreigners in the Czech Republic, but in real-time, the foreign populace is much more diverse.

Ondřej Vlček, CEO of Avast and one of the wealthiest Czech businessmen, has taken the lead in introducing new models of working, that could revolutionize the way companies work in the future.

Avast has not only successfully kept afloat during the Covid-19 crisis, but they have also actually drawn inspiration and adapted exceptionally to the new troubling circumstances.

Decisive changes in Avast were made as early as September 2020 last year, when the antivirus giant chose to give their employees the possibility of working at home permanently if they wanted to.

This year, Avast has decided to provide two models of work for their employees: the conventional ‘Work from the Office’ model, and the ‘Work from Anywhere’ model.

The ‘Work from the Office’ model lets employees spend most of their time in the office, or they can also just visit the office for meetings and if it’s necessary.

The latter model, ‘Work from Anywhere’, which is a concept that was solidified because of the pandemic, allows Avast’s employees to work from their homes, cafés, or practically anywhere that suits their interests. This new model of work that has inevitably emerged because of the Coronavirus and its global restrictions, has fundamentally introduced a sort of ‘endless vacation’ for employees all over the world since they don’t need to commute or be obliged to work in one specific location every day.

The CEO of the largest antivirus company in the world – with about two thousand employees – has decided to cancel fixed working hours. “We’ve verified that this model is working and employees are happier,” adding that they are able to better organize their free time or move wherever they want.

However, it is not just the style of working that is changing during the crisis, work environments and spaces are evidently being shapeshifted to fit the newer concepts.

Avast, for example, has embraced the concept of having their workplaces flexible and diverse. They want to suit the spaces to their employees’ needs, according to Vlček. Avast has prepared workspaces for focus and concentration, workspaces for teamwork, and spaces for rest and conversation.

Successful navigation through the pandemic is evidently seen in the company’s net profit, which grew by 14.5% to 3.8 billion CZK during the first half of the year 2020.

“Avast demonstrated considerable resilience in its business during the outbreak of the pandemic. Our overall operating and financial performance were strong, supported by the trend of working from home, which led to increased consumer activity on the Internet,” said Vlček.

Moreover, Avast has decided to offer all their employees a share of the profits, in the form of ‘limited rights shares’ (RSU), since they believe that this will boost and enhance the employees’ work quality.

Ilya Novodvorskiy, an American developer and father based in Prague, has created a reading app that multilingual households, in particular, will find of use.

ReadMio is an interactive application that allows users to read stories out loud that come with their own personalized sound effects and music.

Team ReadMio’s core mission is to provide a positive experience, especially for families and the bonds between parents and children. They believe that the modern world is quite busy, more often than not.

The sounds are strictly voice-triggered, so all you need to do is read the story to activate the enchanting and fun tunes that have been built into the application.

On top of that, the sounds get triggered according to the tone of your voice, offering a completely immersive experience as you read the stories. ReadMio runs on top-notch voice recognition technology.

“In the beginning, we tried most of the available speech recognition services. However, we were not completely satisfied with either. If the parent is reading, the device must recognize the message within a few tenths of a second – otherwise the sound will not appear in the right place. In addition, there was a problem with inaccurate translations for Czech and Slovak,” says Novodvorskiy.

“In the end, we gained enough knowledge and developed our own ideal solution with the help of speech recognition experts,” he explains.

What’s more, the application works also offline. An internet connection is only needed when users want to download new stories, and the stories have been categorized by age and genre, to make it easier for users to find a story befitting their wants.

Additionally, new stories are added every week. Each story has been customized with a beautiful and artsy illustration as a cover. Users can also print the stories if they want to.

Families can choose from dozens of tales known to readers in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, including The Three Little Pigs, Daedalus and Icarus, Hey, Ho – Ground, Open Up.

ReadMio is available on iOS and Android, supporting iOS version 11+ and Android version 6 and above. In the near future, ReadMio might become available for Huawei users as well.

Moreover, ReadMio has a printable ‘Memory Game’, which users can play with, to entertain their children.

Readmio team: Jozef Šimko, Martin Bruncko, Radoslav Rajčan and Ilya Novodvorskiy

readmio app czech

readmio app prague morning

EU officials have created a new category and level of risk for countries in Europe, according to how impacted the country is by the Covid-19 virus.

In light of the past weeks, new strains of the virus have emerged, and on top of that, there are dilemmas impeding the faster distribution of vaccines.

This has been a decisive factor for the relevant authorities to create the ‘dark red zone’ category.

President of the European Commission, Ursula Von Der Leyen has said, “We propose that a newly introduced category of dark red zone would show that in this zone the virus is circulating at a very high level”.

“Persons traveling from dark red areas could be required to do a test before departure, as well as to undergo quarantine after arrival.”

“And in view of the very serious health situation, all non-essential travel should be strongly discouraged – both within the country and of course across borders. At the same time, it is absolutely essential to keep the single market functioning.”

This category has been added to the already existing green, orange, and red zones. The color system is based on a map created by the European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC), and it’s been based on public health data that has been provided by each European Member State.

The aforementioned ‘dark red zone’ countries are the worst-hit countries by the pandemic, with the highest rate of infection. Dark-red zone areas also imply that the new strain of the virus has been detected in the particular country, specifically the new strain of Covid-19 which emerged in Britain.

The Czech Republic has already been marked as a dark-red zone as of the 24 of January 2021, since the Czech Republic is documented as the second most affected country in the European Union.

Dark-red zone countries will have tighter and stricter travel restrictions, with officials and leaders condoning traveling abroad, unless it’s for work or the export/import of goods.

Charles Michel, President of the European Council, has spoken on behalf of the leaders of EU member states and has said that they deem it necessary to restrict travel which is not deemed necessary.

“We are convinced that, when it comes to travel that is not necessary, restrictions should be considered”, Michel said.

Press Conference following #EUCO VTC on coronavirus https://t.co/1DZsTVLyza

— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) January 21, 2021

If you are looking for a quick delivery to your door, or if you’re running a company or business and want a practical and quick way to have your meals every day, MyFoodPlace can help.

This company offers their service as the very first Cloud Kitchen in Prague, Czech Republic. What makes the concept behind a Cloud Kitchen interesting, is that a company usually takes multiple chains of restaurants and food services under their wing, and in general, lets them work from the same location.

This concept is both pragmatic, efficient, and also innovative.

MyFoodPlace, as an example, collaborates with many different restaurants, to give their customers a plethora of options, such as Corleone, Smíchovna, Namaste India, Žebírkov, and their very own pizza brand Raketou, to deliver a variety of different dishes to your door or place of work.

All these food brands work under one roof and are at their customers’ service.

myfoodplace ghost kitchen

MyFoodPlace deliveries have an eclectic range of different foods, from pasta to burgers, salad bowls to Asian cuisine, to even Indian and Czech Food. If you want to expand your taste palette with the different delicacies this company has to offer, then taking advantage of this multicultural menu is highly recommended. Everything is accessible and neatly categorized on their website: MyFoodPlace – První virtuální kuchyně.

MyFoodPlace also offers two of their very own food brands. If you’re in the mood for American-style pizza, or maybe you’re craving for something healthier but still tasty, then try Pizza Raketou or Fresh Table for salad bowl delicacies.

You can check out Pizza Raketou on their website: www.raketou.cz. Give them a follow on Instagram: raketou_cz and Fresh Table’s Instagram: Freshtable_cz.

myfoodplace prague

Conveniently, the website provides a ‘best-sellers’ category, where all the most popular choices are lined up, so it’s easier for users to choose. This serves as a good feature for the more indecisive customers.

The company’s goal is to expand their reach across Prague. They plan to open more cloud kitchens, to offer their services to a wider customer-base. This means customers have more opportunities to order from several diverse and interesting kitchens, through one single order.

Overall, it’s easy to use, it’s rapid, and all there is to do is to make an account. MyFoodPlace also offers a discount bonus when you register. Although, registration is not mandatory.

The city of Prague has thrived on tourism to prosper; however, the impact made by the pandemic in the Czech tourism industry has been substantial.

Czech Tourism, along with the Ministry for Regional Development and the Czech Foreign Ministry have launched a strategic plan to combat the negative economic consequences of Covid-19 on what once was a thriving sector.

There was a 50% drop in revenues during 2020, and more than 80% in Prague. This has put around 200,000 jobs on the line, not just in the tourism industry, but in other professions as well, including bakeries, and cleaning agencies.

The 2021 strategic plan of CzechTourism will try to attract tourists from all over Europe, namely from; Austria, France, Great Britain, Italy, Hungary, The Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, and Spain.

This will be done with the help of a campaign by Czech Airlines, targeting France, the UK, Italy, and Spain. The third phase of their strategy aims to bring Americans, Asians, and Russian tourists to the Czech Republic.

However, even if tourism remains essential for the city centre, government officials do express the desire to improve the attractiveness of the city to keep locals happy. Zdeněk Hřib, Mayor of Prague, said, “our goal is to create conditions for sustainable tourism that does not have negative effects on the local population. We are already expanding the greenery in the centre of Prague, fighting visual smog and unregulated accommodation platforms”.

For example, city management aims to improve the image of the centre for Prague-residents, this means locals and foreign residents. One of their projects is to modify Mariánské náměstí for approximately 90 million CZK.

“We are trying to transform and improve public spaces in the centre, which would also become an attraction for Prague residents. In this difficult period, which we are all experiencing, I see it as important to continue such projects and thus give Prague and Prague-residents a positive impetus for the future,” says Deputy Mayor for Territorial Development Petr Hlaváček.

The Czech economy is expected to revive in 2021, with the help of vaccines. GDP is projected to increase between 3% to 5%.

On the other hand, the unemployment rate might grow to more than 3%, while inflation is predicted to decrease by around 2% in 2021.

Xvideos faces backlash as the site contains videos of sexual abuse against women and children.

Xvideos, one of the largest adult content platforms on the internet, will be seriously dealt with by Czech police and authorities over the revelation that the platform enables and allows the streaming and sharing of pornographic videos depicting sexual abuse, and sexual exploitation of children and minors.

It has been revealed that any user on the Xvideos’ server can upload content, with little to no restrictions. Consequently, this is the main reason why many videos on the site go unchecked before it’s too late.

Additionally, the police suspect that the site provides illegal content, which could be directly sourced from these shared videos containing child pornography.

It has been reported that the criminal police of the Czech Republic, along with the Supreme Public Prosecutor’s Office, are investigating Xvideos’ server.

Petr Malý, a spokesman for the Chief Prosecutor, has stated that the case has been referred to the Criminal Police Service and Investigations for further action.

This is a critical case for the Czech authorities to tackle, as the outcome has serious implications. The company that operates the Xvideos server, WGCZ Holding, has a turnover of about 1 billion CZK annually, and there is a high probability that some of their profits are directly earned from these videos containing sexual exploitation.

XVideos founded in Paris in 2007 and as of June 2020, it was the most visited porn website and the 8th most visited website in the world.

Their office is registered near Wenceslas Square and is owned by French entrepreneurs and siblings, Malorie and Stephane Pacaud.

An identical case against Pornhub transpired very recently, as it was forced to delete millions of its’ videos, following a backlash after it had been found out that the site had videos upon videos of sexual abuse against women and children.

Mastercard and Visa have already blocked and disabled any payments for Pornhub, in light of this event.

Xvideos faces the same fate, as the two giants have already banned some transactions made on the site.

“We do not tolerate the use of our network and products for illegal activities,” said Marcel Gajdos, CEO of Visa for the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary.

Airlines and travel agencies have been hard-hit by the economic consequences brought upon by the pandemic.

Data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) reveals that the Czech Republic’s airline industry has been one of the most affected by the Covid-19 crisis and restrictions.

There has been a 78% drop in passengers in the Czech Republic, according to their statistics, and this has caused a huge decline in profit and revenue of around USD 1.7 billion.

Many airlines and travel agencies have suffered and reported large losses. For example, Czech Airlines, a member of the Smartwings Group, reported an estimated decline of 90% in the year 2020, compared to 2019.

Kiwi.com announced that only half the number of people bought tickets to go abroad this year, again in comparison to 2019.

Another travel agency, Invia.cz, a huge and domestic travel agency in the Czech Republic, reported a decline from a 6.6 billion revenue during 2019 to 1 billion in 2020.

However, even with ongoing difficulties experienced by many of these companies, most are looking to make positive comebacks in the year 2021. Additionally, some reports have shown that Czechs still have an interest in going on holidays and traveling abroad.

Kiwi’s recent reports from their press release state that Egypt, in particular, remains a very popular and frequently chosen destination to travel to amongst Czechs, claiming that more people traveled there last year than 2019.

There were also reported bookings for flights to Tenerife, Barcelona, and Málaga. Bookings to London have been booked as well, but flights and travel to the UK have been stopped a few weeks ago due to the new strain of Covid-19 that has been detected there.

Invia.cz has reported that Czechs are still interested in flying to Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, and again Egypt this year. Invia’s CEO, Michal Tůma, has shared his optimistic outlook and said, “our main focus at the moment is on sales of tours for summer 2021”.

Additionally, a report from November 2020 also stated that around 1,500 Czechs had still booked flights and traveled even amidst the Covid-19 crisis, mainly in Egypt, Tunisia, and Zanzibar.

Ultimately, the quicker the government accomplishes its vaccination goal to successfully combat the Covid-19 virus is, the more hope there is for normalcy to come back for the tourism and aviation industries.

Prague is undoubtedly a city with a very rich historical background. Simultaneously, it also has a wonderful and vibrant artistic and cultural scene.

The city’s general attractiveness has been a magnet for many world-renowned artists and musicians to come flocking and to use the city’s spots and impressive facilities.

Prague’s metros, club scenes, and diverse aesthetically-pleasing spots have been shot on video and utilized by many different household names over the past decades. Here are some noteworthy examples:

Radiohead, the famous British rock-band hailing from the 1980s, used Prague’s metro announcement, in the opening of their song A Reminder, released in 1998. The song comes from their ‘EP Airbag/How Am I Driving?’, and was reportedly recorded from Jiřího z Poděbrad.

Additionally, their main vocalist Thom Yorke, shot a short film partly in Prague, while riding an underground train. The film is available on Netflix, featuring three of Yorke’s songs from a new album named ANIMA, and was directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.

On top of that, the wildly successful and iconic Rihanna, also shot two music videos in Prague. Her single Don’t Stop the Music was filmed in Radost Fx. On the other hand, her single Shut up and Drive was shot in a scrapyard somewhere in Prague.

To add to the list, the American Band R.E.M. shot part of their music video E-Bow The Letter in Prague. In the clip, the viewers will see tram number 14, Kotva Department, and Prague’s main railway station. The band’s singer Michael Stipe, was actually one of the first musicians coming from outside the country, to perform in Prague after the Velvet Revolution.

Kanye West, has also come to Prague to shoot and film two music videos. Runaway and No Church in the Wild. The celebrity rapper reportedly enjoys his stays in the city.

Other names who filmed in Prague or in the Czech Republic include The Lighthouse Family from Britain, and even the sensational group The Prodigy, to name a few.

Hlavní nádraží

The train station became a very common destination for foreign musicians. For example, the following artists shot their music clips here:

Gwen Stefani – Early Winter
Geri Halliwell – Look at Me
Editors – Smoker Outside the Hospital Doors
Blue – Breathe Easy
Lasgo – Something
Sarah Connor – From Sarah with Love
Simply Red – Your Eyes

The Covid-19 pandemic measures have forced a big decline in rent prices in Prague. This is due to a few factors, namely because of a lack of tourism, and an absence of university students.

In pre-lockdown times, thousands of university students were usually expected at the end of summer to come looking for accommodation, but distance-learning has been obliged by governments globally, eradicating the need for students to show up physically.

A significant decrease has been documented since August 2020, substantially peaking around that time when it was clear that universities were not going to be open again, and that learning would stay online. Rent prices have been decreasing since then, affecting all parts of Prague.

Notably, Prague 1 encountered a huge decrease of 11.5% during August of last year, followed by Prague 7, with a documented decrease of 5.8%. The estimated rent price for 1+KK dropped by 12%, at about 11,000 CZK since December 2020.

On the other hand, 3+KK apartment rents plunged to a decrease of 14.6%.

What this has come to signify for the market, is a decline in short-term rentals. Mainly correlated with the fact that there aren’t enough tourists to rent out flats for a short-term period. A large number of smaller apartments which were mainly rented out on Airbnb, for example, have switched to long-term rentals.

Petr Hlaváček, Prague Deputy Mayor and responsible for territorial development, said that “not all of the apartments for short-term rentals are adapted for standard use”.

Generally, there are more flats available for long-term rental now, with a documented 97.7% increase (14,738 in comparison to 7,453 in 2019), at the end of the second quarter of 2020.

This is an unprecedented number of available long-term flats in the last four years.

House prices, on the other hand, are unlikely to fall in the foreseeable future, again especially in Prague. According to analysts at Deloitte, developers would rather reduce supply than sell at a loss.

And with ever-increasing demand, as well as a combination of slow-building permits, rising prices of land, construction work, and materials spiking costs, the point of breaking even and thus sale is also continuously rising.

As of Monday, a vaccination team has been dispatched in Prague and started operating in the early hours of the morning. The team consists of a doctor, two nurses, and volunteers.

They are driven around in a Red Cross vehicle with the task of vaccinating clients of residential facilities for senior citizens.

The facilities themselves cannot provide vaccinations to the elderly, hence the need for this team and operation. It has been reported that six facilities have requested the service so far.

The vaccination team has been organized by the Czech Red Cross, along with the Prague Municipality, and the Municipal Polyclinic.

David Doležil, Director of the Municipal Polyclinic and regional vaccination coordinator, has said that “The mobile team will help with vaccinations in various other locations in the coming days as necessary. In addition to that, our polyclinic will provide the entire logistics and handle the formal side of things. We have another very difficult period ahead of us.”

Czech Republic’s Minister of Health announced that the vaccination against Covid-19 will strategically be carried out, and done in three stages.

Blatný announced in a press conference during the first week of January. The first stage, which is currently happening, will include the vaccination of people over 80 years of age, healthcare professionals, as well as clients and employees in retirement homes.

Following the completion of this stage, vaccination will be prioritized for people with chronic diseases, and people over 65 years of age. These two stages will supposedly be in completion by March.

The last stage of vaccinations will be reserved for all other members of the nation. It has been estimated to generally take place around February 1, according to Blatný.

Additionally, the Czech government has also asked for advice from Israel regarding the best mode of action to carry out the vaccine procedure.

In light of recent events, it is becoming more apparent that anti-vaccination sentiments are strong in the Czech Republic.

Pro-Trump protesters marched from Wenceslas Square to the US Embassy in Prague. Some of the demonstrators sported yellow star badges, embedded with the word ‘Neočkovaný’ (Unvaccinated).

These badges were meant to imitate the ‘Star of David’ badges, which served to identify Jews during Nazi Germany, and even in the Middle ages. Ultimately, they were badges of shame.

Czech Chamber of Deputies member and politician, Lubomír Volný, shedded light and explained this symbolism. He stated that “in due time, vaccinated citizens will be favored, while the people who remain unvaccinated become second-class citizens, in a sense”. This explains why the demonstrators wore the yellow stars of David.

The protesters’ choice of sporting these badges has been strongly criticized and condemned by many politicians and relevant figures.

The Federation of Jewish Communities and The Foundation for Holocaust Victims in the Czech Republic, for example, have taken notice of this movement and have posted on Facebook stating that the display was greatly disrespectful to the victims of the Holocaust, and an act of abuse.

The individual or group who started this movement remains unknown, but among many other factors, this controversial display has shed light on the general mistrust of Czech citizens against the newly-distributed vaccines.

Richard Q. Turcsanyi from Palacký University, who led a regional survey to find out if Czechs wanted to be vaccinated, claims that “anti-vax sentiments are strong in the Czech Republic, largely due to the fact that many Czechs lack trust in their own government”.

On top of that, the government has also been unsuccessful in countering the spread of disinformation on anti-vaccination messages and propaganda. Jan Blatný, Minister of Health for the Czech Republic, has been criticized by another government official, for not having put a campaign against disinformation into action.

Citizens remained skeptical, even after Prime Minister Andrej Babis (ANO) received his vaccine publicly. Conspiracy theories spread online, claiming that he was injected with a placebo, while others claimed it was a scam.

“In the Czech Republic, there is generally a problem with media literacy. People don’t really check what is written on the internet,” said Jan Cemper, editor-in-chief of the anti-misinformation website Manipulátoři.cz.

Consequently, survey results show that only about 30-40% of Czechs want to be vaccinated against Covid-19. Czech pollster, Stem, found that only 40% of the citizens were willing to be vaccinated.

On the other hand, the survey conducted by Palacky University Olomouc found that only 30% of the citizens were willing to receive the vaccine.

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