Forbes.cz, Filip Vokoun, 13 May 2026
Think the Czech Republic is known abroad only for Škoda and Baťa? Ask on the other side of the world and you may well hear different names – the ones saving lives, supplying energy and tackling disasters that others wouldn’t dare take on.
One such company is Dekonta from Dřetovice in Central Bohemia. The village of five hundred inhabitants is home to a firm that helps decontaminate war-polluted oil fields in Kuwait and has removed hazardous waste left behind by decomposing mustard gas in Libya.
It has also lent its expertise in Georgia, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan, as well as at former air bases in Vietnam. These were heavily contaminated during the war by the American herbicide Agent Orange, and Dekonta set out to reduce the threat to public health and the damage to the environment.
For countries suffering from poor soil quality, the company provides not only the remediation itself but also site surveys including sampling, risk assessments, feasibility studies for the future restoration of sites, and the removal and disposal of toxins.
Its story is just one of many Czech business ventures changing people’s lives abroad for the better. Among them is the furniture maker Alba CR from Škvorec near Prague, whose products are enjoyed by people in Angola, Trinidad and Georgia.
In the first of those countries, working with a partner, the company helped establish a brand-new hospital. It first sent over chair samples so that the local team could choose on site the models that best matched their needs. They opted mainly for corridor benches and laboratory chairs.
“The whole contract was demanding above all in terms of logistics. The key task was to design the most efficient packaging possible, so that we could minimise the volume of the shipment and keep transport costs at a reasonable level,” says Sabina den Brinker, CEO of Alba CR.
They know all about that at MZ Liberec too. The company exports emergency-medicine products to more than eighty countries around the world – including India, Vietnam, Laos, the Philippines, Trinidad and Tobago, Ethiopia, Zambia and Gabon.
It mostly supplies ceiling pendants for operating theatres, to which patients and equipment are connected for oxygen and other medical gases, and it also equips intensive care and resuscitation units.
“The Czech market can’t sustain a company of our size, so we look for opportunities everywhere in the world,” says Marek Matěják, Managing Director of MZ Liberec.
Prague-based LPP Holding also exports to India and other countries in Southeast Asia, where it is active mainly in radar technologies and unmanned systems.
“As a general rule, we focus on markets where there is demand for cutting-edge technologies and where there is also scope for long-term partnership,” says Jan Volšík on behalf of the company.
Another firm enhancing the Czech Republic’s good name in the world is Cink Hydro – Energy from Sadov near Karlovy Vary. Its water turbines are already running in more than fifty countries, roughly half of them outside Europe – in Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica and Nepal, for example, as well as Malaysia and Taiwan.
What makes their stories remarkable is that this is not the kind of business we know from home – by the time a single contract is completed, entrepreneurs often have several more candles on their birthday cakes.
“A recent delivery of four generating units to Malaysia took six years. The tendering process and negotiations with the local grid operator took about two years, manufacturing the units a year, and another three years were spent on permits and the actual construction of the power plants. With deliveries to the Japanese market the process is often even longer, and for us it is without doubt one of the most administratively demanding,” says Martin Vaidiš of Cink Hydro – Energy.
Alba CR has had similar experiences. When delivering metal benches for an airport in Trinidad, the company found that more challenging than the logistics was the sheer length of the whole process – which can easily take as long as two years.
“During that time, the product selection is gradually fine-tuned, and samples, transport and financial terms are worked out. It is precisely this long and complex negotiation that is typical of these projects, and it demands patience and flexibility from all sides,” den Brinker points out.
According to Matěják, financing is part of the same picture: these countries usually lack capital of their own and need support from an export bank, for instance. That is another reason projects drag on for a very long time before the financing is even resolved.
“In some countries, such as Egypt, we repeatedly run into the problem that our private partner is unable to secure foreign currency to pay for our goods in a sensible currency – dollars, pounds, euros – and again, it always takes a very long time,” says Matěják.
The way these companies break into such markets is similar for most of them. The main thing is to be better than the competition – remote as these places may be, the Czechs are not the only ones interested in them.
“On top of supplying all the documentation, we have to have a sufficient number of references and propose a price that is realistic yet low. Just preparing for the tenders takes a great deal of energy and time,” says Anna Mothejlová of Dekonta.
The next step, she says, is to understand the environment in which the project is being carried out. That means adapting to the cultural and religious setting, building relationships with local officials and authorities, and where appropriate hiring local staff. According to Mothejlová, this requires not only a thoroughly professional manner but also language skills and the ability to adapt.
Matěják also highlights linguistic and cultural readiness. “In Africa it pays to know French and English, and in India you need a great deal of patience – and anything they promise you as a done deal should be ‘divided by ten’,” reveals the Managing Director of MZ Liberec.
Supplying India is far from straightforward, especially given the need to adapt to local requirements. The “Make in India” policy, which emphasises the involvement of local industry and local partners, plays an important role there.
“That can be an obstacle for many foreign companies, because not everyone is prepared to share part of the production or commit to building local cooperation over the long term. We, on the contrary, see it as an essential part of operating in such an important market,” says Volšík.
Vaidiš confirms the necessity of this. “A successful deal is usually preceded by market research and finding a local partner who can help us with the local legislation – which as a rule differs considerably from our own – and above all with negotiations with the end customer,” says the head of sales and marketing.
Conditions vary from country to country, and without a local presence or the help of a local partner, breaking into a new market is, according to Vaidiš, a relatively complicated – though not impossible – affair. More than once, Czech embassies or CzechTrade, the agency supporting Czech exports, have helped them “open up” a new market.
“The source of our foreign projects is mostly the Czech Development Agency, the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Thanks to these organisations we have carried out projects in Vietnam, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and São Tomé and Príncipe. Through NATO we have then implemented projects in the Philippines and Libya, for example,” says Mothejlová.
But the companies also find customers on their own. MZ Liberec, for instance, regularly conducts research around the world, which identifies places worth pursuing and where it could try to develop business further.
“We usually do a ‘tour’ of the region, visiting potential partners we have shortlisted in advance, and looking for someone whose local knowledge can help us succeed in that market. Or we take part in local trade fairs to build brand awareness,” says Matěják.
Even so, partnerships help them too. Sometimes they build on tied-aid donation projects to developing countries run by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in cooperation with the Association of Manufacturers and Suppliers of Medical Devices, and sometimes they get a good tip from CzechTrade.
“But most of it is our sheer hunger for organic growth. There are also cases where we make no effort at all and an order simply arrives thanks to a good reference – from New Zealand, say, where we have no installations. There are plenty of cases like that, and we try to build on them,” Matěják explains.
Although it is a different field altogether, exactly the same applies to Czech companies wanting to supply luxury products to distant regions – Preciosa Lighting, for example.
The company has broken into Singapore, where it now has its own representation; Japan, where it even made it to last year’s Expo in Osaka; and Qatar, where it runs a branch in the capital, Doha.
“As for the Middle East, we currently have a large number of projects in Oman as well – recently we delivered lighting installations for the Muscat Hills hotel, a new mosque and the Sultan Haitham City Experience Center. Saudi Arabia is another interesting market for us; we are now completing a major project for the Kingdom Centre Riyadh skyscraper,” says Petra Mejzlíková, the company’s Marketing Director.
Abroad, the company provides lighting solutions for luxury hotels, residences and public spaces, as well as bespoke fixtures designed for specific interiors. Across Asia and the Middle East it also delivers custom installations for luxury yachts and cruise ships.
“From the point of view of logistics and project management, these regions are undeniably demanding – they differ in climate, technical standards and cultural approaches to cooperation. That is precisely why our ability to manage the entire process, from design through manufacturing to installation, is so crucial,” Mejzlíková notes.
She therefore considers it a major advantage that most of the production takes place under one roof in the Crystal Valley in the north of the Czech Republic, giving the company full control over quality and deadlines.
At the same time, it has local teams and partners in key regions such as Singapore and Qatar who ensure smooth communication and on-site delivery. Thanks to this experience, the company now sees complexity as a natural part of global projects rather than an obstacle.
That is also why its projects can now be found in 136 of the world’s 195 countries. Mejzlíková points out, however, that you have to respond to changing markets. In the past, Singapore and Hong Kong enjoyed a huge boom and enormous contracts were carried out there; today this is shifting to Southeast Asia.
“At present, the Asia-Pacific market accounts for roughly ten per cent of our contracts; by comparison, the share of contracts in the Middle East is higher, at around thirty per cent,” the Marketing Director adds.
Lasvit is also thriving in the region – for the company, the United Arab Emirates, and specifically its most populous city, is one of its key territories.
“Dubai creates a favourable business environment that is relatively easy to navigate. We opened our office here in 2009, and in that time we have been able to witness the Dubai economic miracle,” explains Pavel Krajčík, General Manager for the Middle East.
What unites these companies abroad – whether they help save lives or make them more beautiful – is precisely the ability to adapt.
“We try to create as many business opportunities as possible all over the world, with an eye on rationally spent costs. Where we succeed, we try to follow up on those projects and develop the market in greater depth. But one thing always holds true: we have to adapt to the market, both with our products and with our approach. We’re not Apple just yet,” Matěják says with a smile.
As it sometimes turns out, though, delivering to the jungle can be easier than delivering within the Czech Republic. “Right from the start, one delivery of chairs for a railway switch station, carried out for the State Fund for Transport Infrastructure, was unusual. Instead of a normal address, all we received were the GPS coordinates of the destination,” recalls Sabina den Brinker.
There was a simple explanation – it was a remote switch station with no standard access road. To complete the contract successfully, the driver had to carry the chairs on foot through the forest all the way to the destination.
