“We have chosen Brno because of the rich talent base,” said Paul Cormier, Executive Vice President of Engineering at Red Hat. “We are excited about the great potential for innovation and collaboration as this team integrates with our global engineering organisation.”
The centre, employing over 200 staff, will be located near the Faculty of Informatics at Masaryk University.
“The company anticipates extensive cooperation with universities, especially with Masaryk University,” said Tomas Hruda, CEO of the regional development agency CzechInvest. “Cooperation will happen on many levels, from submission of dissertation work, through student internships in the company, to the possible creation of new departments at the faculty in cooperation with, and at the instigation of Red Hat.”
Red Hat, of Raleigh, North Carolina, joins an impressive list of its US counterparts which announced investments in Czech in 2006. These include:- Sun Microsystems opened a development and technology centre.
- Microsoft opened its first world-wide centre for mobile applications.
- Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) opened a new software development centre
- Quadbase Systems Inc., providers of Web-delivered reporting and charting tools, opened a software R&D centre.
- Solectron Corporation, providers of product design, supply chain management, manufacturing and aftermarket services, set up a repair centre
- Hewlett-Packard established a computer technology supply chain headquarters to serve Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
- Honeywell International established a global aviation center.
- Rannoch Corporation acquired ERA, a Czech aerospace surveillance technology company, to expand its technology capabilities and reach in Europe.
- Procter and Gamble is expanding its production and opened a new engineering centre
- Ingersoll-Rand announced the company is opening a new research and training centre.
According to CzechInvest about 60 percent of foreign direct investments announced by US companies in 2006 are research and development projects in high tech industries. A high proportion involve design projects in information technology and software.
“In 2006 we saw US technology companies look to the Czech Republic for highly skilled infrastructure technology and software engineering talent,” said Hruda.
CzechInvest says its office in Silicon Valley, California is experiencing a high level of interest from companies in the IT and software sector considering offshoring R&D. Out of nearly two dozen new projects and inquiries under negotiation, more than 70 percent are interested in the country’s engineering R&D skills, mainly in IT and software.
“Approximately 30 percent of the new projects and inquiries have originated from small enterprises based in Silicon Valley seeking affordable, high-end design,” said Radomil Novak, Director of US Operations-West at CzechInvest.
“As an emerging technology company based in Silicon Valley, we’re looking for highly skilled engineers and cost-effective solutions that will help us move our product development forward,” said Fred Luk, president, Quadbase Systems. “We selected the Czech Republic for its talent pool and resources. We’ve got an aggressive growth strategy and timeline to market for new products.”
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