Prague - A new export strategy is being prepared by Czech Industry Minister Martin Kuba from the Civic Democratic Party (ODS). The plan includes the ministry's employees being granted more diplomatic powers in order to allow them to support Czech export.
Kuba would like some of his ministry's employees to have diplomatic passports.
"We offer the Foreign Ministry to provide a diplomat's team with somebody whose primary agenda would be business. In a similar way, embassies normally have military attachés representing the Defense Ministry. If I make it simple, I would call such person a business attaché," said Kuba to Aktualne.cz, adding that business chambers and unions would participate on their selection.
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"The best option for me is a business attaché with some kind of diplomatic passport," Kuba said in the interview.
However, it has been only a year since Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg put an end the practice of business attachés, and apparently does not plan to renew it.
"There is a standard procedure of how to become a diplomat," said Deputy Foreign Minister Tomáš Dub (ODS). According to him, there is no reason why the Industry Ministry employees should be allowed to bypass it.
The practice of placing military attachés is the only exception, stemming from diplomatic traditions, and cannot be transferred to other ministries, said Dub.
However, Industry Minister Kuba apparently has support of PM Petr Nečas. This means that in addition to the recent (and ongoing) conflict over the EU fiscal treaty, there is yet another rupture emerging between the PM and the Foreign Ministry. When Nečas and Foreign Minister Schwarzenberg traded strong words over the EU fiscal treaty in the media, the PM also criticized the Foreign Ministry's alleged lack of support for Czech export.
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Kuba's export strategy is aimed above all on the world's emerging economies such as China, Russia or Brazil (which form part of the so-called BRICS group), but also on some other interesting economies such as Turkey or Ukraine.
