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POINTS OF SINGLE CONTACT IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC

Martin Tlapa

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade

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Our Philosophy

Internal Market – great potential for business

Why is this potential still not fully realized?

• barriers in our heads (fear from the unknown)

• weak awareness of European citizens and businesses (not large

companies, but SMEs)

What can we do?

• cut the mental borders

• disseminate information about the benefits of doing business in

the Internal Market

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PSC project management I.

The aim is to provide our businesses and consumers with a first –

class service. How do we know that we have chosen the

proper way?

continuous assessing the number of clients

continuous assessing the satisfaction of clients

(mystery calls)

business costs savings

economic return of the project

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PSC project management II.

How can we reach our aims?

building of skills of the PSCs (language and professional)

building of competences of the Ministry (up-date of

information, support to the PSCs)

effective promotion

web portal

For all these activities we have laid down specific terms and

responsible people.

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PSC´s in the Czech Republic – battle on two fronts

How do we organize it?

• follow the times of electronic communications

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electronic PSC at www.businessinfo.cz

• face to face contact must remain

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15 “Corporeal” PSCs

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“Corporeal“ PSC´s.

infrastructure of 15 offices

(in all Czech districts and 2 in Prague)

located at the district Trade License Offices

Qualified staff

• regularly trained

• supervised and supported by our experts from the Services

Directive Implementation Team

• at least intermediate knowledge of English language

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Our story

Why Trade Licence Offices?

vast majority of authorizations are issued by Trade License Offices

their location (in all Czech districts) is ideal to cover the whole area

of the Czech Republic

Ministry is a supervising body

rationalization of the costs - the network of offices is already

existing

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Electronic PSC

established at www.businessinfo.cz

(most frequently visited web portal by entrepreneurs in the Czech Republic)

2 main functions:

• informative

(information about authorization schemes, consumer protection law,

remedies and dispute resolutions, etc)

• transactional

(able to convey the application to relevant authorizing body)

English version will be available by the end of February

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First experience

Data available after the first month of operation

more than 180 requests on corporeal PSC´s and more than 5000 web portal visitors

the busiest PSCs are in Prague and in Brno

in most cases personal services, small crafts,

most of them (approx. 70%) on cross – border provision of services in the neighbouring countries (AT, DE, PO, SK)

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Challenges

We will be facing a number of challenges in the future!

We need to make sure that the PSCs work with the relevant and updated information

The quality of the staff must remain on the highest level (continuing education, deepening of their language skills, etc.)

Businesses as well as consumers must be constantly informed about the service provided by PSCs (promotion, advertising, …)

The aim is to built a “gateway“ to public administration. PSCs must be a first-class service for the tax payers!

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Way forward

Services remains a priority

Importance of timely and effective implementation

Process of mutual evaluation

Services excluded from the Services Directive

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5 keys to unlock potential of Internal Market

Remaining barriers to be removed between old and new member states

Intellectual property rights Network industries Completion of IM in services Lack of common vision in the internal market

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Thank you for your attention!

Martin Tlapa

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade