Bohdan Wojnar, ŠKODA AUTO Board Member for Human Resources, said: “With this new endowment fund, we will be able to make important investments possible and to sustainably support the public sector in improving infrastructure. Mladá Boleslav is our company’s home and ŠKODA AUTO is aware of its social responsibility. For this reason, we are also helping to improve the quality of life of our staff as well as all residents of the Mladá Boleslav region.”
ŠKODA AUTO is underlining its close connection to the company’s home town and is committing itself to comprehensively improving the Mladá Boleslav region’s attractiveness. At the round-table talk in the InnoCube, ŠKODA AUTO’s newly opened innovation area in Mladá Boleslav, ŠKODA AUTO presented the newly established endowment fund in detail. In addition to ŠKODA AUTO Board Member for Human Resources Bohdan Wojnar, Jiří Bouška (First Deputy Mayor of Mladá Boleslav), Robin Povšík (Deputy Mayor of Mladá Boleslav), Jiří Müller (Mayor of Kosmonosy) and Eduard Masarčík (Deputy Mayor of Kosmonosy) also took part in the Round Table.
The ŠKODA AUTO endowment fund amounts to 30 million euros. In the next three years, it is supposed to support investments in Mladá Boleslav and the surrounding areas. In order to do this, ŠKODA AUTO is working closely with partners from politics, administration and civil society. The car manufacturer cooperates among others with the Czech government, city authorities of Mladá Boleslav and Kosmonosy, the administrations of surrounding towns and communities, as well as the region of Central Bohemia. ŠKODA AUTO also strives to motivate other business organizations in the region to participate on increasing its appeal.
ŠKODA AUTO had ŠKODA AUTO University and a market research institute hold numerous conversations with various interest groups in advance. Bohdan Wojnar presented the results of the resident survey at the round-table talk. The results showed that most residents would like the level of safety within the city and region to be increased, improvements in terms of housing, the transport network to be optimised and the range of leisure activities to be extended.
ŠKODA AUTO is also placing great importance on proximity to residents for further implementation of the investments. Another survey on www.noveboleslavsko.cz , starting today, will gather concrete proposals for the ‘Ten weeks for the Mladá Boleslav region’ project. This way, residents can suggest which other projects should be addressed in 2019.
ŠKODA AUTO has long been devoted to its home region and supports local organisations in different ways. On 4 December 2018 ŠKODA AUTO donated cars to several colleges in the region as well as the Mladá Boleslav municipal police. The municipal police also received a cheque for two million Czech crowns. ŠKODA also gave four cars to several colleges that run their own driving schools in the region.
Securing jobs for the long term at ŠKODA AUTO’s main plant is an important factor for strengthening the Mladá Boleslav region. To that end, ŠKODA AUTO is consistently backing future technologies such as electromobility. In addition to electric cars (to start production in 2020), the factory in Mladá Boleslav will also produce electric components for models from several Volkswagen Group brands from as early as 2019.
Furthermore, ŠKODA AUTO also promotes future technologies for urban traffic. Together with the city of Mladá Boleslav and energy supplier ŠKO-ENERGO, the car manufacturer built a 50-kW quick-charging station for electric cars at the aeronautical museum at Mladá Boleslav’s airport. To promote electromobility, ŠKODA AUTO has launched the largest investment programme in its history. Within the next five years, the car manufacturer intends to invest around two billion euros in electromobility and new mobility services.
