Page 21 - BNE_magazine_11_2019

bne November 2019 Companies & Markets I 21
bne:Tech
Czech R&D posted record growth of €500mn in 2018 to €3.9bn
Nelly Tomchikova in Prague
Czech R&D expenditures grew by CZK12.3bn (€447.5mn) year-on-year to a record CZK102.8bn (€3.9bn) in
2018, accounting to 1.93% of GDP, according to data published by the Czech Statistical Office (CSO) on October 16.
At the end of last year, 113,500 people were employed, both as part-time or full-time, in the R&D sector in the country. Over the past five years, their number has increased by around 20,000. The country, however, is still lagging behind neighbouring Austria and Germany, which together with Sweden and Denmark spend more than 3% of GDP on R&D.
Business contributed to an increase in expenditures the most, by total CZK59.9bn (€2.32bn) last year, representing 58% of all spending and 1.12% of GDP. One third of spending on R&D was provided by the state. “A record CZK35bn (€1.36bn) was spent on R&D from the state budget, which is by CZK3.8bn (€147.5mn) more compared to 2017,” said CSO Director of Society Development Statistics Department Martin Mana.
Driverless cars
of Russian Yandex hit 1mn mileage mark
bne IntelliNews
Driverless vehicles developed by Russian internet major Yandex have hit 1mn miles of test drive mileage in Russia, the US, and Israel, the company announced on October 17, confirming previous reports by bne IntelliNews.
"This important milestone firmly establishes Yandex as Europe’s largest driverless car developer, ranking the company in the top five autonomous vehicle companies globally, which have completed this distance," Yandex commented in the press
The share of the EU support on Czech R&D spending amounted to CZK6.3bn (€244.6mn). “Since 2016, R&D spending has been growing faster in the Czech Republic than the economy itself,” Mana noted.
The fastest growth is recorded in labour costs, particularly wages, which have increased by two thirds from CZK34bn (€1.32bn) in 2013 to CZK54bn (€2.1bn) in 2018. Labour cost accounted for 53% of R&D spending last year, 43% five years ago. “On the other hand, the share of investments has fallen, mainly due to a decrease in EU funding,” added Mana.
At the beginning of the year, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis (ANO) announced a new innovation strategy “Czech Republic: the Country of the Future 2019 – 2030” inspired by the Scandinavian countries, Switzerland and the Netherlands. Following the strategy, the country will become one of the strongest innovators by 2025, and among the innovation leaders and EU7 by 2030.
Driverless vehicles developed by Russian internet major Yandex have hit 1mn miles of test drive mileage
release, adding that this group also includes Waymo, Cruise Automation, Baidu and Uber.
To compare, the mileage of Google's driverless subsidiary Waymo is 12.9mn km, while all of its testing fleet has a mileage of 29mn km. The subsidiary of General Motors Cruise Automation had 0.9mn km mileage in 2018 and 2017, while Uber Technologies claimed to have reached 2mn km in 2017.
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