NOVEMBER 2022

New Mošnov terminal offers a unique combination of road, rail and air transport

A unique new combined transport terminal has now opened at Ostrava Airport Multimodal Park, part of the Mošnov Industrial Zone. The terminal will facilitate the shift away from road transport and towards rail freight. Combined with the warehouse facilities and production units at the Mošnov Industrial Zone, the terminal will help improve efficiencies in logistics processes while also minimizing negative environmental impacts and boosting the future development of business activities throughout the region.

Construction work at the Mošnov terminal began in September of last year. Attending the opening ceremony were the Governor of the Moravian-Silesian Region, the Mayor of Ostrava, and representatives of the developer OAMP Holding, who jointly signed a Memorandum of Cooperation setting out their commitment to coordinate their efforts in order to attract a major new strategic investor to the zone. The new terminal will bring substantial economic benefits and an influx of new investments not only to Ostrava, but to the region as a whole.

Ostrava Airport Multimodal Park (OAMP) covers an area of 81 hectares, and when construction work is complete it will offer more than 353,000 m2 of logistics, manufacturing and office premises. The developer plans to use a further 51 hectares of neighbouring land as part of the projected future enlargement of the OAMP complex and the arrival of a strategic investor. At present, this is the only industrial park or zone in the Czech Republic that offers such a comprehensive range of different transportation modes: Mošnov is truly unique in its seamless integration of rail, road and air transport.

Photo:  Lukáš Kaboň

A new garden has been created at the Plato Gallery

Work on a new garden has now been completed at the revitalized former city slaughterhouse complex, which has been converted into the home of the Plato contemporary art gallery. The project began in April of this year, and the entire area is now undergoing its final inspection in order to gain official approval for use. The garden will bloom into its full glory next year, as the grass will begin growing again after the winter and the plants will blossom, making it an ideal place for a pleasant stroll. 

The garden features various types of greenery – grass lawns, meadow plants and medicinal herbs, shrubs and trees. At its centre is a water feature – a small pond providing a biotope for numerous aquatic plants. Water for irrigation will be stored in two underground tanks, which will collect and retain rainwater from the gallery roofs.

The City of Ostrava continues to drive development in this part of the city centre. Construction work is currently underway on the extension to Masná Street, which will eventually link Janáčkova Street with Stodolní Street. The work began in August of this year, and completion is scheduled for December 2022.

Photo: Lukáš Kaboň

Contera opens a new logistics park in Hrušov

Contera has completed the first two buildings at its new development Contera Park Ostrava D1 in the city’s Hrušov district. The buildings will be used primarily for light industrial production and warehousing.

The park is situated on a former brownfield site, and it includes one of the largest and most modern industrial halls in the Czech Republic. Both buildings are already fully occupied by tenants. A third building is currently under construction, with completion scheduled for the spring of 2023. The complex will include a modern technology park; construction is planned for 2023-24.

Contera Park Ostrava D1 is located on a newly revitalized site formerly occupied by a housing scheme built for workers at nearby factories. The entire area was hit hard by the devastating floods of 1997, and the apartment blocks were so badly damaged that it was not viable to repair them. The City of Ostrava decided to implement a zoning change which would enable the derelict residential buildings to be replaced by offices and light industrial units. The developer Contera won the tender in 2019 and purchased the land.

The largest user of Contera Park Ostrava D1 is the sporting goods retailer Sportisimo, which has set up its logistics headquarters here. The hall (covering 66,500 m2) makes use of robotized systems controlled by state-of-the-art software.  Other users of the first two buildings are AT Computers, the brewer Plzeňský Prazdroj, and the logistics provider VAS Solutions.

The third building at the park is now nearing completion. It will offer smaller but highly flexible spaces, with a relatively large area of office space. 

Photo: Contera

A unique system for developing self-driving vehicles is now operating in Ostrava

Ostrava’s VŠB Technical University has set up a new company, autinno, which will help develop practical applications for automotive industry research.

The company’s first product is Drive-by-Wire Care Interface 2, which is used for developing driver assistance systems and self-driving capability in cars; this system offers a unique range of functions and technical features. The interface is a product of long-term collaboration between researchers at the university and automotive supplier Valeo, which will be one of the users.

The new company will produce, sell and service a range of licensed products, while research will remain in the hands of the university. Spin-off companies like autinno are fully in accordance with the strategic vision SMARAGD (SMARt And Green District) and its key project REFRESH, which are being implemented by both Ostrava universities in conjunction with the Moravian-Silesian Innovation Centre (MSIC) in order to support innovation in the region by bringing together leading researchers, students and commercial companies.

Spin-off companies are proving to be an effective way of transferring knowledge from the academic/research sector to commercial applications. The VŠB Technical University also runs the Green Light accelerator programme to support innovation and enterprise.

 Source: VSB-TUO

The Biggest Job and Service Fair For Expats Comes To Ostrava in November

Jobspin Job & Relocation Fair is an event where you can establish professional connections with global companies such as financial services leader FNZ, Czech internet parfumery Notino, entertainment and telecommunication giant AT&T, regional employers such as Okin, Hella and many more.

Come and find:

• full-time job offers
• part-time job offers, volunteering opportunities, internships and “summer jobs”
• all-day program of information-packed presentations
• expert workshops
• professional help with your housing and finance matters
• free CV consulting provided by Ostrava Expat Centre - team with experience not only in HR but in the process of relocation and adaptation of foreigners
• Free photo booth where you can have made a professional photo for your resume

And, as always, the job fair is FREE to attend for all visitors. The official language of the fairs is English. 

New greenery planted at the Dubina terminal

The Dubina public transport terminal is set to undergo a major transformation. Planting of new greenery began in September; it will help make the terminal a more pleasant place to be as well as improving public spaces for all citizens.

The terminal in Dubina is an important transport hub, used daily by almost 16,000 people. Although it is situated in a busy location near a shopping centre and is used by many residents of the southern districts of Ostrava and nearby communities, the quality of the public space (especially the existing park areas) is currently inadequate. The project will completely revitalize the terminal complex, replacing poor-quality grass areas with new grasses, shrubs, perennials and bulbs. There will also be floral meadow areas, which will be created alongside the tram tracks (on a slope that is currently overgrown with weeds) and in the tram terminus loop. The unsightly dirt paths on the slope next to the passenger waiting area will also be replaced with concrete steps.

The revitalization project at the Dubina terminal is part of the programme REPLACE (Greenery instead of Concrete), which focuses on transforming non-functional concrete spaces in the Ostrava-Jih municipal district and other locations that are particularly vulnerable to the impact of climate change. Obsolete structures such as disused benches, sandboxes and carpet-beating racks will also be removed and replaced with islands of greenery.

Ostrava’s Medical Faculty opens a new simulation centre

The Medical Faculty at the University of Ostrava has opened a new training centre at a cost of more than 250 million CZK. The centre will simulate a range of hospital situations, enabling future medics and other health care specialists to gain valuable experience before entering a real hospital environment.

The new centre, opened in mid-October, is fully equipped to simulate a real hospital, and it will enable students to gain experience of a range of ordinary situations as well as emergency scenarios: handling emergency calls, treating an injured motorcyclist, taking blood samples, stitching wounds, dealing with a complicated delivery, or saving a patient’s life after an overdose.

Thanks to the new centre, Ostrava now has one of the most modern medical faculties in Europe and beyond, with state-of-the-art facilities that will boost the quality of practical training and enable students to gain repeated experience of various types of procedures. The simulations will be used by medics, non-medical health care students, and also experienced doctors.

Part of the centre will be used by students training to become paramedics and emergency services staff; it will include the first simulated emergency call centre in the Czech Republic. The centre will also be used by physiotherapy students and obstetricians (with a delivery simulator).

 Source: The Medical Faculty at the University of Ostrava

Ostrava City Hospital has launched construction of a new building with a hyperbaric chamber

When complete, the hospital’s new hyperbaric oxygen chamber will be able to treat around 30% more patients than previously, and the Hyperbaric Medicine Centre will rank among the most modern facilities of its type in the country. The City has already selected the building contractor – Geosan Group a.s. Work is scheduled for completion in the autumn of 2023. The Hyperbaric Medicine Centre is the only facility in Moravia to provide this type of treatment.

Patients at Ostrava City Hospital have been using a hyperbaric oxygen chamber for almost 60 years. The chamber was opened on 11 September 1965, and it was the first such chamber in the former Czechoslovakia (and only the third in the whole of Europe). 

Now, an entirely new building will be constructed for the Hyperbaric Medicine Centre. The chamber itself will be larger than its predecessor (with a capacity of 14 patients instead of the current 10), and it will be equipped with a full range of specialist technology for providing treatment in critical cases. A hyperbaric oxygen chamber is a large pressurized unit in which patients use special masks to inhale pure oxygen. The increased oxygen concentration helps patients suffering from chronic diseases, inflammatory conditions, or severe limb injuries. It is often used to treat patients with carbon monoxide poisoning. The current chamber treats around 40 patients per day.

Photo: Jiří Zerzoň

Two more companies have set up R&D labs in Ostrava

The Vitesco Technologies lab will create 30 new jobs, and the neighbouring Lumax Industries Limited R&D centre will create a further 20 jobs – helping to expand the range of options for science and technology graduates in Ostrava.

The Lumax World group has chosen Ostrava’s CTPark as the location for its first European research and development centre. This leading Indian automotive lighting producer has created a testing lab for lighting systems, incorporating state-of-the-art technologies and structural features.

The Vitesco Technologies R&D centre has operated at the Hrabová industrial zone since 2014, and it currently employs over 270 people. A major expansion project has recently been completed, doubling the lab’s capacity.

Vitesco’s new R&D centre now ranks among the largest facilities of its type in the Czech Republic. Vitesco is a leading global producer of drive systems for sustainable mobility, and in Ostrava it is developing solutions that will be manufactured throughout the world and used by all major carmakers. A unique feature of the centre is a special vibrating machine that can produce forces up to 100G – equal to the forces produced at the launch of the world’s fastest rockets.

Source: CTP