At present, cities are the main VAT drivers, their economy is growing and their position is even stronger with the expansion of digital technology. People want to move to cities and live there which is also the case of Prague. How should cities develop to meet the needs of citizens, investors, tourists and other groups? “Private and public investors are crucial for cities; without their help, cities or the state cannot do much,” said Miroslav Linhart from Deloitte at the 2018 Friendly City conference and added: “Investors anticipate that the essential role of a city will involve dominant infrastructure solutions. This is what is missing in Prague.”
“Why a friendly city? Certainly to offer its citizens better conditions for living. We would like to have a friendly city in which people feel good,” said Jan Adámek, Chairman of the Association for the New Town of Prague, at the opening of the 2018 Friendly City conference.
According to Miroslav Linhart, Partner in the Real Estate Advisory function of Deloitte, in a friendly city investors, the city and other entities coexist in a friendly environment. “No extreme is good; cities or the public will not move on without a well-functioning cooperation.”
Improving the infrastructure? The key point not only for investors
The main prerequisite is to create a stable, transparent and predictable environment in which investors are not afraid of their investments. Furthermore, the vision, effective administration as well as the city infrastructure are equally important – do the citizens have a place to work and to entertain? Does the city transportation work well? Is the offer of apartments sufficient?
Investors expect that infrastructure solutions will be among the priorities of cities. At the conference, Miroslav Linhart talked about the Prague 2030 study in which Deloitte analysed 25 investment intentions of the capital, comparing which projects are more needed according to the plan and which should not be a priority. The result? Respondents stated that Prague should seek to finish the outer Prague circuit, the inner Municipal circle and invest more funds in the construction of new park-and-ride lots.
Safety of the capital is the key for 91% of its citizens
Paris is known as a luxurious city, Berlin is labelled as multicultural and Vienna as modern. How about Prague? “In comparison with other European cities, Prague is considered to be a cultural city with a well-designed infrastructure but also busier. The results of our survey indicated that the Czechs consider a friendly city to be a place in which people are nice to each other, tourists are welcome, it is safe and offers a plenty of entertainment and cultural events,” said Luboš Rezler from Kantar Millward Brown. 91% of Prague citizens consider safety to be the most important, followed by simple accessibility, cleanliness, renovated sights, lower prices in the city centre and plenty of greenery.
Do you know the joke how a Brno citizen arrives in Prague…
Prague vs. Brno, the jokes are timeless. However, the constant teasing of Prague is no longer the case in Brno. They did a good thing.
“A city strategy is always prepared for many years, includes many pages and is extremely complicated but is never realised. We decided to find our own way in Brno. We walk the streets and ask people where they like to live and go. We want to engage the citizens of Brno in the process and listen to the public,” explained Barbora Podhrázská, who is responsible for marketing at the Municipal Authority of Brno, the principles of communication with Brno citizens.
What does it look in practice? The South-Moravian city concentrated all services to a single online card. A student competition thus resulted in the Brno ID project. Another project facilitated access to data which are now at one place and available online. “We walk the streets and ask people where they like to live and spend their free time. We want to engage the citizens of Brno in the process and listen to the public,” explained Barbora Podhrázská, and added: “We have completed the first year of the project entitled We will listen to you in which anyone can bring an idea of how to revive the city. We provide people with resources for realising public interest projects, such as trails with a new topic, chess tables, toilets at public places, playgrounds etc. People then vote to select winners and the municipal administration does not interfere in the process. A total of 16 winning projects are already underway.”
Seminars, webcasts, business breakfasts and other events organized by Deloitte.
