Czechia needs unrestricted business trips to Germany

The Czech Republic needs business trips to Germany to remain unrestricted, particularly in terms of obligatory coronavirus testing, representatives of the Confederation of Industry, Association of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (AMSP) and Exporters' Association told CTK. Testing would pose a significant administrative and financial burden for businesses, they said.

Germany will probably put nearly all the Czech Republic on the list of risk regions on Wednesday and Czech citizens entering Germany will have to either submit their negative test for coronavirus or go to quarantine, Foreign Minister Tomas Petricek said on Tuesday. Prague and Central Bohemia were already put on the list earlier.

If Germany really put the entire Czech Republic among risk regions, it would be good if there was an exception for business trips, Lukas Martin of the Confederation of Industry said. According to AMSP board deputy chairman Evzen Reitschlager, putting Czechia among risk regions would complicate lorry transport and halt export and import of goods. Germany is the Czech Republic's biggest trading partner. Last year, Czech firms exported goods worth almost Kc1,500bn to Germany. In the first seven months of this year, Czech exports to Germany amounted to Kc766bn, Martin said.

According to state-run agency CzechTourism, German tourists are indispensable for Czechia, as they have the highest visitor numbers, the highest number of overnight stays as well as the highest total spendings. The German economy is the driving force of tourism for many countries, including Czechia, CzechTourism head Jan Herget said. "In June, Germans were among the first to start returning to Czechia. In summer, they helped revive tourism in Prague," he said.

According to data from the Czech Statistical Office (CSU), two million German tourists were accommodated in Czechia last year. According to CzechTourism's data, three quarters of German tourists return to Czechia repeatedly.

Source: ČTK