Prague - The Czech Foreign Ministry has started to sell its buildings and other assets in foreign countries.
After selling Prague's Troja diplomatic quarter, a step that raised criticism of anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International, the ministry now focuses on its real estate in exotic countries, but also in Europe.
The Czech diplomacy is going to sell its buildings in Venezuela, Kenya, Yemen, Brazil and other countries. The most expensive item on the list is a residential complex in Berlin.
Most of the buildings are former seats of Czech diplomatic missions recently closed by the Czech government due to budgetary cuts.
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The ministry itself and Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg have long struggled to prevent the selling of assets, and instead opted for renting them. However, recently it was revealed that the ministry has never been very successful in it.
"After holding the assets for years, an analysis showed that it costs a lot of money," said the ministry spokesman Vít Kolář. He even admitted that some of the vacated buildings were burglarized.
The embassy to end all embassies
The selling is aimed at generating funds for the ministry's plan to build a new mega-embassy in Washington. The project, possibly the Czech Republic's largest-ever construction project abroad, is estimated to cost millions of USD, and the government budget subjected to many austerity measures will not be able to provide the funds.
And even if the ministry succeeds in selling the diplomatic buildings, the revenues will end up in the government budget, managed by the Finance Ministry. Thus it is not sure they will be used on the new US embassy.
"The Foreign Ministry will have to discuss this matter with the Finance Ministry," said Kolář.
The buildings are sold via local real estate agencies. In countries that no longer have Czech diplomatic representation, the selling is conducted by the diplomatic mission in a neighboring country.
For example, Czech diplomats in Brazil are selling the ministry's property in Caracas, Venezuela.
In October 2011, the ministry also sold a large complex of diplomatic buildings in Prague's Troja district to a company called Magic Carpet, owned by a co-owner of Prima Television (a Czech private broadcaster) Ivan Zach.
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However, the Foreign Ministry's largest tender in years raised criticism by Transparency International. There was only one bidder that offered the price asked by the ministry.
At the end, Zach's company paid CZK 395mil for the lucrative real-estate complex.
The ministry is selling also its property in Germany, Rumania, Moldavia, Bulgaria or Uzbekistan, but most of the assets being sold are in Latin America and Africa, where is located the largest part of the closed diplomatic missions.
Gate to Latin America closed
The decision to close many diplomatic missions in the developing world has been criticized by the opposition as well as by Czech entrepreneurs and exporters which are desperately trying to find new markets outside the crisis-hit Europe.
"We are disappointed that the Foreign Ministry does not consult its intentions with exporters and entrepreneurs," said Vice-President of Industry and Transport Union Radek Špicar. He added that the most painful was the closing of the embassy in Venezuela, considered a gate to the Latin American market.
