A survey by the international and auditing company, BDO, has ranked the Czech Republic in 23rd place overall in its global evaluation of business locations for 2017. That represents a jump of three places on its ranking in 2016.

Illustrative photo: Petr Štefek, CC BY-SA 3.0 CZ

The top of the table showed little change with Singapore placed first followed by Hong Kong, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Denmark. Germany made it into the top 10 with the biggest advance out of countries at the top of the ranking. The study covered 174 countries.

The Czech Republic’s overall score of 65.18 points put it just ahead of Israel and South Korea. It is also the highest placed country from the former block dominated by the Soviet Union. Fellow European Union member Estonia is the next country in this category, placed 30th, with Poland on 34th place and Slovakia at 43rd.

The breakdown of points according to sectoral analysis scores the Czech Republic a bit worse. It is put in 29th place for general economic conditions, ranked 24th for the political and legal environment, and given 26th place for its overall socio-economic context.

BDO’s overall report this year paid special attention to the overall trading environment given the apparent opposition to market opening moves shown by the Brexit vote and election of Donald Trump in the United States.

The company said that in spite of the rhetoric, a global trend towards closed markets for goods, capital, and people could not be discerned. Some major closed economies, such as China, which had developed behind protectionist barriers and policies were opening up, the report said. And North America and Europe still remain among the most open economic areas in the world. The report warned that Eastern Europe would probably be one of the worst affected areas if a worldwide trend to tighten trade barriers and increase tariffs began in earnest.