Globalisation is in love with Prague

The word „outsourcing“ still sounds foreign in the Czech Republic. Abroad there has long been a consensus that we could benefit from this magic formula. Not so long ago, it was India and China global corporations dreamed of. Now they're interested in Central Europe, and they're moving their development laboratories, information centres, administration and services here. Prague, Brno and other big cities have become a sort of white-collar paradise, sought-after destinations for investors with „better capital“. It seems the Czechs have finally found their way onto the global market.

The Chodov business park looks like the product of a collaboration between a transplant surgeon and an urbanist. It's encircled by panel high-rises and the ever-congested motorway to Brno; the nearby metro station spews out thousands of Praguers and long lines of buses transport them further out into the periphery. And in the middle of this typical Czech suburban scene stands a promenade lined with high-tech, glass-and-steel buildings containing acres of data servers, advanced technology, development laboratories, international engineering teams and top-secret information. Their tall smokestacks hint at the underground emergency generators, ready to start up in the event of a power outage, producing electricity for up to five days. And somewhere beyond the outskirts of Prague, at a secret location, sit an emergency…