The second Czech-Japan Science and Technology Days

Seminar took place in Prague at the seat of Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Cernin Palace) on May 15-17, 2006 under the auspices of the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, Jiri Paroubek, and Deputy Prime Minister for the Economy, Jiri Havel.

The main organizers of the event were the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MIT). CzechInvest and the Czech Technical University (CTU) were the event’s leading coordinators.

Other participating bodies and institutions on the Czech side included the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MEYS), the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (ASCR), and other universities and organizations.

Almost 140 participants attended the event; fifty-three of them were Japanese government officials, business representatives, hi-tech specialists and scholars.

The Japanese mission included the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Shotaro Yachi, while the business mission was headed by Hajime Sasaki, Co-Chairman of the Committee on Europe of Nippon Keidanren (Japan Business Federation).

The main topic of discussion on May 15, 2006 focused on the latest results of research and development and their applications, namely in the fields of:

• Precision engineering
• Robotics-cybernetics / information technology and communication
• Electronics and microelectronics

On the following day all participants were invited to a special ceremony held at Bethlehem Chapel in Prague during which Honorary Chairman of Toyota Motor Company Dr. Shoichiro Toyoda was awarded the Doctor Honoris Causa degree from the Czech Technical University. He is the first Japanese to receive such an award from CTU.

Dr. S. Toyoda and the Japanese business mission had earlier visited the Office of the Czech Government and met Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek.

During the rest of following two days the Japanese delegation split into two groups and visited several Czech R&D facilities, technical universities, the Japanese companies DENSO (Liberec) and Panasonic (Plzen), the famous Moser glassworks in Karlovy Vary and the oldest golf course in the Czech Republic (opened in 1905) in the spa town Marianske lazne.

Photogallery »