HIGHLY UPBEAT: H.E. Mr Milan Hovorka is highly upbeat about the future growth in bilateral economic, education and tourism ties between Czech Republic and India

One of the Czech Republic’s flagship firms is Skoda. It is doing extreme well in India for so many years. It has two production lines in Aurangabad and at Pune. Tatra company is another big Czech giant working for so many years with local partners in India. We have Bonatrans, another noble and internationally recognized company that has been working for so many years with the Indian Railways in India. This company took a brave and wise decision by bringing its product closer to the market by establishing a facility in India—in Aurangabad. We do have some other companies who have a presence. Through this we are trying to increase our chances to be more successful. It is obviously important that if one sets for himself appreciable levels of ambition we have companies which have proved their capacity to do things internationally, i.e. be good partner to Indians. This is the feedback I receive from Indian friends and colleagues, that there exists a high level of competence of our companies and products. Also our companies distinguish themselves for fine balance between quality and price.

Please tell us about educational opportunities in the Czech Republic for Indian students in view of the upcoming EHEF India 2016…

I have to put this in a broader perspective. For me, as ambassador here, it is part of my objective to promote people-to-people contact between our two nations. This noble task extends to cultural exchanges, whether it is tourism, whether it is about student exchange, and education in general. From that perspective I am particularly pleased and honoured that I had the opportunity to promote Czech-based universities. It has started yielding results. More and more students are keen to invest, take time and make their studies in the Czech Republic. The European Higher Education Fair in Delhi is a unique opportunity to tell people about systems, let university interact directly with potential candidates, tell them what they can expect from them, what kind of programmes they offer. At the same time more details can be shared regarding terms and conditions on which students can come and receive what I believe are world class skills. I am grateful to the EU for bringing us together and creating this platform. And this is not the only avenue we are pursuing. We work hard with a view to helping the universities of both countries establish direct links between each other.