At its session on 17 February, the Government approved the National Policy for Reasearch, Development and Innovation for 2016-2020. Compared with previous national R&D strategic documents, this time much greater emphasis is placed on the stregthening of applied research based on the needs of the economy and the public sector, said Pavel Bělobrádek, Vice-PM for Research, Development and Innovation. The employers say the strategic RDI document should be more focused on major problems such as the underdeveloped cooperation between the business and the R&D sectors...

The Czech Statistical Office published facts and figures related to the elderly, showing that the number of pensioners is rising. Earlier in January 2016, representatives of WHO, medical staff and hospitals informed that the Czech Republic was not ready for ageing of the society, does not have a system of care for the elderly in place and called for a solution. The pension system changes with every government. This government abolished the second tier of the pension system but has not moved further.

The Aktualne.cz server compared quality of life in 14 Czech regions based on 24 criteria such as average life span of citizens, accessibility of medical care, level of crime, air pollution, situation in the labor market, or participation of citizens in life and decisions related to respective regions.

EconLab has published rankings of state and municipal companies according to the quality of public procurement. First places went to Lesy ČR, Čepro and the University Hospital in Pilsen. The recipe is simple - sufficient competition, transparency and avoidance of legal missteps. In many companies, however, it is happening rather the opposite - an example is ČEZ Distribution and Krajská zdravotní.

Press release you can read here.

Detailed results available here.