Prague - The day that brought a record fall of foreign trades in the country saw Prime Minister Topolánek presenting all members of the newly established Economic Council at a press conference.
The council is officially called the National Economic Council of the Government (Národní ekonomická rada vlády - NERV) and has a status of an independent body.
The ten-member council's main task is to prepare adequate measures for the financial crisis that is expected to hit the Czech Republic hard this year.
"The members come from three different sectors - business, banking and finances and academic sphere," said PM Topolánek at the press conference. The council should meet roughly once in a fortnight and its members are not entitled to reimbursement.
Among the members are Vladimír Dlouhý, Martin Jahn, Jiří Rusnok, Jiří Scharz, Jiří Weigl, Jiří Kunert and Tomáš Sedláček.
US-based economist and former presidential hopeful Jan Švejnar was not eventually nominated.
Vladimír Dlouhý used to be the Minister of Industry and Trade Minister during the tenure of Prime Minister Václav Klaus.
Jiří Schwarz works as the dean of the Faculty of Economics and Public Administration of the University of Economics in Prague, and at the same time he holds a position of the Chief Executive of UniCredit Bank and of the President of the Czech Banking Association.
Tomáš Sedláček works as the chief analyst of Czech bank ČSOB. He has been recently offered a post of the Finance Minister to replace incumbent Minister Kalousek. At first he agreed to take the post but later changed his mind and wrote Aktuálně.cz in an sms he would not take the post, as the conditions of the offer changed.
Jiří Rusnok used to be Finance Minister too and now works as an adviser of the ING Executive Committee.
Martin Jahn, also a former cabinet member, is a member of the supervisory board of the Czech car maker Škoda Auto and chief executive of the Volkswagen Group in Russia.
"It can be useful if there are more views how to solve such a complex issue such as the economic development, in particular at this time and if these views come from different sectors," said PM Topolánek.
