Foreign companies in Liberec region: results of questionnaire survey

Foreign direct investment (FDI) influenced deeply the economic development of the transition economies after 1989. The Czech Republic is one of the leading recipients of the FDI in the CEE. The impact of the FDI is visible not only on national level but also on the regional level. Despite the fact that the Czech Republic belongs to the middle-size EU Member States, the regional development after 1989 differs distinctly. The article focuses on results of the questionnaire survey of the foreign-owned companies in Liberec region. The results are compared with the average values of the indicators for Liberec region. The aim of the article is to determine the motives of the investment, the structure of exported production, workforce development and employment of foreign workers in the companies that came to the Liberec Region as the FDI. We have also verified the hypothesis that the main reasons of the FDI entry were the low production costs and the investment incentives. According to the results of the questionnaire survey we can confirm only the first part of the hypothesis. The importance of the low production costs which were the most significant for almost 60% of the companies. Another essential factor for 50% companies was the qualified labor force. However, this does not corresponds with the education structure of the FDI workers, 62% of them achieved only basic education or secondary education without leaving examination. Anyway, the investment incentives were significant reason only for one company. According to our survey the FDI helped the region to reallocate the workforce form the previously dominating textile industry to nowadays dominating automotive sector. The other positive effect of the FDI is the employment of the lower qualified work force which has a worse position on the labor market than the highly qualified. Nevertheless it neither is important to emphasize that the positive effect of the FDI is nor based on the long-term factors