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materials, such as limestone, granite, marble, slate, gypsum, sandy gravels, sands and brick clays. Since 1989, the Region’s economy has basically changed. New sectors came into being, such as the automotive industry, biotechnology, information and communication technologies, electrical engineering, and the pure technologies sector within power engineering. The number of scientific and research workplaces, too, is increasing, with a corresponding increase in the number of expert workers. There are many successful firms based in the Region. The ambition of the regional authorities and other institutions is to build a highly prestigious and modern engineering base in the Moravia-Silesia Region that will be prepared, as regards human resources, new technologies and innovations, for the creation of chains in the area of strategic projects for the engineering and power industries, transport and construction on the global scale. For example, the national engineering cluster is concerned with collaboration in international partner networks and it also supports the preparation of joint international R & D projects in the framework of the CORNET, HORIZON 2020, and INTERREG V-A programmes. There are also other possibilities, specifically for innovation. In Bohumín, for example, a plant is under construction for frying oil processing and turning it into a unique bio-plastic material. In the process, bacteria consume the used frying oil and turn it into a bio polymer used as a raw material for the production of a unique bio-plastic material. After being used, this material will easily disintegrate in water or the soil into water and carbon dioxide. Waste will thus be turned into a valuable material which, in addition, will not be harmful to the environment. This Czech technology, called Hydal, has been developed by the company Nafigate in conjunction with the Technical University in Brno, the University of Technology in Prague and other academic institutions.

This technology could help to solve the worldwide problem of liquidating the growing amounts of used frying oil. In 2018, Porsche Engineering opened a new research and development centre in Ostrava. In its new branch in Ostrava, this provider of engineering services is investing in the technically demanding area of mobility of the future. The projects of the new research and development centre are in line with the new trends in the automobile industry, such as electro-mobility, autonomous ride and smart mobility. “Today, the automobile industry is faced with great technological challenges,” says Dirk Lappe, Managing Director of Porsche Engineering Group GmbH and Chairman of the Board of Porsche Engineering Services, s.r.o. “Porsche Engineering

Statistical DataPopulation 31. 9. 2018 1 203 872

Gross wage

1.-3. Q. 2018

CZK 28 137

(approx. EUR 1 097)

Unemployment

30. 11. 2018

4.35 %

Source: Czech Statistical Office

Photo: CzechTourism archives, UPVISION

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