The most attractive cities in Central and Eastern Europe
The most attractive cities in Central and Eastern Europe: To what extent are the comparative advantages of Prague sustainable?
Moving out of the crisis requires intense cooperation between business leaders and public authorities. After the roller-coaster of the last Parliamentary elections, local elections are approaching fast. As Prague-based or Czech-based business leaders with a keen interest to develop the competitive position of our respective companies, this is a good time to ask ourselves a few critical questions:
- Is the pleasure of living in Golden Prague and in a country with such a rich historical patrimony enough to justify our decision to base our businesses here?
- What is the competitive advantage of Prague, now and in the future?
- How can the City and its upcoming leaders contribute to making our businesses and therefore their City more competitive as a business location?
- What concrete actions do we expect from the leaders of our host-city, beyond political divides and focusing on the creation and sharing of wealth and well-being in our favorite City?
The best city for business – does Prague stand any chance in competition with other cities in Central and Eastern Europe? According to a study by Roland Berger, yes, it does! The ranking in the study examines key cities in Central and Eastern Europe.
Infrastructure works, people are innovative, achieve higher education, have international experience, high quality of life and they can choose from a wide range of cultural activities: This makes the city attractive to international management and companies.
Based on these criteria, Roland Berger Strategy Consultants evaluated the key cities in Central and Eastern Europe in order to identify the most attractive cities in the region. At the top of the Roland Berger study stands Vienna with 89.9 points out of 100, followed by Prague (70.8). Unlike Vienna, Prague lags behind in comparison to other Western European cities.
"Twenty years after the fall of the Iron Curtain, the main cities of Central and Eastern Europe are catching up with what fell behind. With this study, we try to show how attractive these cities are in the international context,"
explains Constantin Kinsky, Managing Partner of the Prague office of Roland Berger Strategy Consultants.
Vienna achieved, as expected, the first place, but other cities are catching up. "Cities in Central and Eastern Europe already score ahead in two out of six aspects. However the smaller capitals in the region must establish themselves internationally and sharpen their profiles," says Kinsky.
