Vývoj konkurenceschopnosti ČR a vybraných zemí CEE v letech 2019-2029: jak se udržet v čele

The main topic of this thesis is the competitiveness of the Czech Republic in comparison with the selected CEE countries (Slovak Republic, Poland, Romania and Hungary). It concerns the impact of the current coronavirus crisis. The aim of this thesis is to develop strategic economic and political recommendations in order to maintain the competitiveness of the Czech Republic. It is based on the future development prediction of the competitiveness of the Czech Republic and the countries under study in between 2019-2029. The theoretical part analyses the concept of competitiveness and several theories, namely the theory of endogenous growth, the theory of the technological gap and the theory of comparative advantage. Furthermore, this part of the thesis studies the Global Competitiveness Index by the World Economic Forum and current key factors influencing the competitiveness of country. The empirical part of this work evolves a unique index of competitiveness based on the theoretical background. Moreover, it identifies the trend of the index development in between 2019 - 2029. This trend identifies the at-risk areas of the Czech Republic concerning the competitiveness in comparison with the countries under study. This thesis recognizes three main areas, namely goods market efficiency, higher education and training and innovation. Furthermore, these areas are correlated with the current strategic documents in order to define recommendations. The most important recommendations this thesis has determined are increased funding of educational system with focus on teachers' salaries, active approach to reduce the administrative process within the business environment, reduction of the share of taxes and contribution based on the profits, and last but not the least the ensurement of transparency in the public procurement process.