Czechia has made remarkable progress in improving digital connectivity, although important gaps remain in the diffusion of high-speed broadband. Czech SMEs have also strengthened their digital practices in recent years, although the country’s overall performance remains below the EU average. The main national SME digitalisation policy involves the digital innovation hubs, six of which are funded by EU sources. These hubs, both the EU-funded and the others, play a useful role, but they need stabler and longer-term funding for sustained impact. Both the national Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP) and the Operational Programme “Technology and Applications for Competitiveness” (OP TAC) have SME digitalisation as one of their main objectives, although available budgets are not always up to the challenge. Furthermore, grants and concessional funding could be matched more consistently with soft forms of support, including advisory services and training in digital skills. In this regard, additional actions like awareness-raising campaigns, digitalisation vouchers and online auto-diagnostic tools could further support digital adoption, especially among digital laggards.
SME Policy in Czechia
Abstract
While 81% of Czech companies had access to internet speed above 30 Mbit/s in 2023, the diffusion of high-speed broadband (100 Mbit/s) remains patchy, especially in rural areas. The country performs well in basic broadband but lags behind in high-speed connections like FTTP & DOCSIS 3.1 standards.
Czech SMEs have significantly improved their internet access and digital practices since 2019, although the overall digital performance of the country remains below the EU average. The EU Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) ranked Czechia 19th among the 27 EU member states in the business integration of digital technologies in 2022, pointing to slower progress compared to other countries.
Czechia has developed a Strategic Plan for Digitalisation which is aligned with current EU goals and focus on the digital transformation of businesses. Nonetheless, there is scope for a closer alignment between this document and the national SME Support strategy, notably by integrating objectives from the former into the latter.
The national Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP) allocates substantial funding to the digital transition across different thematic areas such as public administration, cybersecurity, and education. Business-related funding amounts to EUR 662 million, which may fall short of addressing key barriers such as high technology costs and existing skills gaps in SMEs.
Czechia has six European Digital Innovation Hubs (EDIHs) which are co-funded by EU sources and offer services in digital skills, innovation, and access to funding opportunities. These hubs face funding challenges, as current arrangements cover only up to 2026, and would require stable, long-term funding for sustained impact. The government could also consider backing additional hubs across the country, possibly through a mixed-funding approach combining public and private resources.
Three main grant schemes under the Operational Programme “Technology and Applications for Competitiveness” (OP TAC) support SME digitalisation: a) Digital Enterprise; b) Virtual Enterprise, and c) Technology 4.0. These schemes are well-received but need broader outreach and complementary business development services to address the delay in SME digital adoption. In this regard, additional actions like awareness-raising campaigns, coaching, training, digitalisation vouchers and online auto-diagnostic tools could further support adoption, especially by digital laggards.
Finally, Czechia has made important strides in the digitalisation of its public administration. Digital interactions between the government and the private sector can be used as a leverage to support business digitalisation efforts.
There have been improvements in the digital infrastructure, but the diffusion of high-speed broadband is still patchy
Digitalisation is a key enabler of business success, for example by enabling better access to markets or by supporting the green transition. However, business digitalisation also depends, to some degree, on the quality of the national digital infrastructure.
Czechia’s digital infrastructure has improved over the last years. In 2023, 81% of Czech companies had a fixed internet connection speed of more than 30 Mbit/s, a proportion that has steadily increased in recent years. However, coverage at 100 Mbit/sec shows many gaps, especially in rural areas. Only about half of Czech businesses (45% in 2023) are connected to the Internet at a speed higher than 100 Mbit/s, which is up from 34.5% in 2020, but still lower than many other European countries (Figure 6.1, Panel A).1
FTTP & DOCSIS 3.1 are 1Gbps-capable networks and broadly correspond to high-speed broadband access or “superfast internet”. While Czechia scores better than most of the other EU27 countries in the coverage of fixed and NGA broadband, which can be considered as “low-speed” Internet, the overall FTTP & DOCSIS 3.1 coverage in rural areas is far below the average (Figure 6.1, Panel B).
The digital skills of the adult population have also improved
Digital skills are also instrumental to a successful digital transition of the business sector. In Czechia, 70% of the population aged 16- 74 had at least basic digital skills in 2023, which is significantly higher than the EU average (56%). In 2021, the figures for Czechia and the EU-27 were respectively 60% and 54%, making Czechia one of the EU countries with fastest progress in this area.2
SME digitalisation is gaining steam
Czech enterprises have experienced increasingly better access to the Internet, although the share of companies with fast connection is still low, which reflects the abovementioned delays in digital infrastructure development. Similarly, the adoption of digital practices, such as the purchase of cloud computing services or the use of social media for business purposes, has also increased over time (see Figure 6.2, Panel A).
Nonetheless, Czechia still ranked 19th out of the 27 EU member states in the integration of digital technologies by businesses. Information from the EU Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) also shows that Czech enterprises do better than the EU average in areas like the use of cloud computing services and e-commerce, while they lag behind in the use of ICT for environmental sustainability purposes and electronic invoices (Figure 6.2, Panel B).
Percentage values
Note: (*) The indicator only covers enterprises with at least 10 employees
Source: Czech Statistical Office, ICT in enterprises, https://csu.gov.cz/ict-in-enterprises?pocet=10&start=0&podskupiny=403&razeni=-datumVydani#data-and-time-series___enterprises-using-selected-digital-technology & Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) 2022,Czechia, https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/desi-czech-republic
Similar results are shown by the European Investment Bank (EIB), which finds that a slightly higher percentage of Czech firms use advanced digital technologies compared to the EU average. The EIB study also points out that the likelihood of using digital technologies increases with firm size and that the main digitalisation barriers experienced by Czech SMEs include gaps in the digital infrastructure, in line with the previous section, and a shortage of digital skills, which seems to be in conflict with the abovementioned improvements in the digital skills of the population (European Investment Bank, 2020[1]).
According to Eurostat, 20.5% of all Czech companies with at least ten employees showed either high or very high digital intensity in 20213. In 2023, the proportion rose slightly to 21.0%. For the EU 27 average, the numbers were 22.1% and 25.2% respectively, indicating slowee progress in Czechia than in the rest of the EU. Finally, still at the EU level, the 2024 Digital Decade Country Report for Czechia, which is part of the EU 2030 Digital Decade framework, highlights gaps in SME digitalisation, particularly in the adoption of AI, cloud services, data analytics, and digital skills. The report recommends increased skills training and SME support to overcome these obstacles (European Commission, 2024[2]).
Overall, these figures offer a picture of a country where there has been progress in digitalisation over the last years, but where more can be done to strengthen the digital infrastructure and to foster the use of digital technologies and practices by SMEs.
The OP EIC, forerunner of the current OP TAC, provides some lessons for current SME digitalisation policies
The Operational Programme “Enterprise and Innovation for Competitiveness” (OP EIC), which is the precursor of the current OP TAC (Operational Programme Technologies and Application for Competitiveness), has been instrumental in promoting SME digitalisation in Czechia and offers some lessons for current SME digitalisation programmes. Through targeted funding programmes, the OP EIC aimed to enhance SMEs’ digital infrastructure, IT capabilities, and overall competitiveness. Key initiatives included the “ICT and Shared Services” Programme and the “Enterprise Digitalisation” Call, which provided SMEs with financial support to modernise operations and adopt new digital solutions.
The ICT and Shared Services Programme stood out as the primary digitalisation support within OP EIC, targeting the development of new ICT products, data centre construction, and shared service facilities. The programme had approved a substantial number of projects by 2022, about 600, of which 352 projects focused on creating ICT solutions. This programme effectively boosted SMEs’ access to advanced digital tools and services but also faced some challenges. Many SMEs found the application processes complex which, combined with limited administrative capacity, affected the completion rate of projects.
The Enterprise Digitalisation Call, on the other hand, focused explicitly on accelerating digitalisation in SME operations through supporting automation, cloud adoption, and data management. This call attracted 153 projects, although only a small fraction had been fully implemented by 2022, which suggests the need of streamlining project-related procedures and providing additional support to businesses to ensure the timely execution of projects.
The Recovery and Resilience Plan has a strong focus on digitalisation, including business digitalisation
Czechia’s Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP) was approved in July 2021 with a total budget of EUR 9.2 billion (with EUR 8.4 billion in grants and the remaining EUR 818 in loans). It includes significant measures to foster the digital transition, with 23% of the budget allocated to this endeavour. A modified plan was accepted in October 2023 and shifted even more resources into the digital transition (from 21% to 23% of the total). All measures must be implemented with a tight timeline, as the regulation establishing the RRP requires all milestones and targets to be achieved by August 2026. The actions of the RRP in the realm of digitalisation can be broken down into five different areas, namely:
Investments and reforms in digital skills, e-government, digital connectivity, and business digital transformation.
Investments in digital equipment for schools, training for teachers, new university programmes in fast-growing digital fields, and upskilling and reskilling for citizens (EUR 585 million)
Construction of university infrastructure (EUR 368 million).
Investments in cyber-security and the digital transformation of public administration, the justice system and health care (EUR 790 million).
The digital transformation of businesses, digital innovation hubs and very high-capacity networks and 5G networks (EUR 662 million).4
The RRP has, therefore, a broad digitalisation agenda, whereas this chapter only covers the digital transformation of businesses. In this subfield, the main objective of the RRP has been to support the improvement of the digital level of SMEs operating in domestic and foreign markets, which is achieved by supporting the adoption of advanced non-production technologies such as automation, AI, and big data.
Both the RRP and the National RIS3 Strategy (smart specialisation strategy) share this focus. In particular, RRP projects must align with the Specific Objective D0.1 of the National RIS3 Strategy, which promotes the digitalisation and use of new technologies in businesses, ensuring that initiatives funded through the RRP also contribute to longer-term national innovation goals.
While Czechia’s RRP reflects a strong commitment to the digital transformation, some challenges raised in recent evaluations need consideration. In particular, although the budget of EUR 662 million dedicated to business digitalisation is significant, these resources may fall short of overcoming key barriers such as high technology costs and existing digital skills gaps. Furthermore, there also seems to be a lack of attention in the RRP to the development of soft skills like change management, which are crucial for the adoption of new technologies.
The European Digital Innovation Hubs are the main national SME digitalisation policy
Czechia’s main SME digitalisation initiative is the European Digital Innovation Hubs (EDIH), with six of them that are spread across the country. These are one-stop shops assisting the business sector and the public administration in addressing digital challenges and are co-financed by the European Commission and the national government. All of them have received support from the Digital Europe Programme and the National Recovery Plan (each at a rate of 50%), with a total amount of CZK 428 million (around EUR 17 million).
Half of these hubs provide expertise on specific digital technologies to companies across the country, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) or cybersecurity, while the remaining half cater to the needs of companies within specific regions. All of them provide services in a standard four-pillar structure:
Test-before-invest: The hubs own physical and technological infrastructure where clients can test digital technologies before investing in the acquisition. As one example, the EDIH Ostrava (located in the capital city of the Moravian-Silesian Region) offers a core facility of High-Performance Computing (HPC), complemented by an experimental industrial testbed5;
Access to investment and funding: The hubs facilitate access to finance for SMEs by providing information, advisory services, and networking opportunities. They organise workshops, seminars, and matchmaking events to educate and connect SMEs with potential investors. EDIHs also assist with financial planning, strategy development, and preparation of funding proposals. They help SMEs navigate European funding opportunities and enter into collaborative projects.
Education and digital skills: In this case, an example is given by DIH “Brain 4 Industry” (B4I), which has set up an academy offering 13 courses, ranging from basic introductions to advanced and expert courses.6
Innovation ecosystems and networking: EDIHs connect their clients to research institutions, specialised business clusters, professional organisations, and public administrations on a need basis.
Interviews from the project’s fact-finding mission indicate that Czechia’s EDIHs are a novel feature of the policy support landscape and are currently in full expansion. The services offered to the clients are (typically) free of charge, and a large majority of clients are SMEs, alongside various public authorities. All five EDIHs that have been subject to a formal evaluation have received a positive assessment by the European Commission (European Commission - Joint Research Centre, 2024[3]). They are also part of the Network of European Digital Innovation Hubs, a platform enabling the sharing of good practices among all 228 EDIHs at the EU level7.
In addition to the six officially recognised European Digital Innovation Hubs, there are seven other similar structures operating in Czechia. These hubs do not receive direct funding from the Digital Europe Programme and are not part of the EU-backed network, but they still play a crucial role in supporting SMEs and public organisations in digitalisation nationwide. These non-EU funded hubs often rely on a combination of national, regional, and private funding and provide services according to regional needs. For instance, some hubs initially started operations under EU funding programmes like Horizon 2020 and have continued to operate with a thematic focus, whether it be sector- or technology-based.8
The Digital Innovation Hubs will need stable funding
Czechia’s EDIHs appear to be working well and are well aligned with the strategy developed by the European Commission to support SME digitalisation, in which EDIHs are one of the pillars. Although no formal statistics about SME uptake are yet available, it appears that the target of reaching 200 SMEs through these hubs will easily be achieved.
Nonetheless, funding arrangements have been made only up to 2026, and the funding is very reliant on EU sources. It would be important that these structures remain in place afterwards, especially because it takes years for such organisations to be fully operational at scale. Stable funding allows for long-term planning, which is key to achieving significant sustained impacts. The government should therefore find long-term funding solutions for these centres, possibly through multi-annual budgets and additional financing mechanisms, such as funding from regional governments, private sector contributions (for instance by charging the beneficiaries for some of the services provided) and participation in EU projects. Across EU countries, mixed funding models, in which EU financing is complemented with regional and national sources, are common and, in fact, are becoming increasingly prevalent (European Investment Bank, 2020[1]).
The reported budget per EDIH per year also appears to be relatively small and could be increased to make even further the digital innovation hubs the main linchpin of national SME digitalisation policies. While the budget of EDIHs varies significantly and depends on many variables, such as the nature of technology infrastructures and testing facilities, the average budget appears to be between EUR 2-3 million. Moreover, the demand for their services outstrips the supply, which is an indication that the programmes and services delivered are of good quality and could be scaled up.
The number of Digital Innovation Hubs could be increased to reach more SMEs
In addition to the six digital innovation hubs that receive funding from the EU level, there are seven other similar centres active in the country, which do not have stable revenues other than the income from the offer of their services at commercial rates9. These hubs would also merit stable and predictable income sources, ideally combining public funding with private streams of income.
This is all the more desirable because other EU countries with a roughly comparable population have a larger number of digital innovation hubs to drive SME digitalisation efforts (see Table 6.1). Czech EDIHs primarily focus on the digitisation of production processes, engineering, and cybersecurity, while they have less emphasis on digitising sectors like transport, energy, and healthcare. Other potentially important areas for SMEs such as personal services, consumer products, and construction are also neglected or receive small attention, despite these areas being targeted by digital innovation hubs in other EU member states. This gap presents significant opportunities for establishing and promoting additional hubs in Czechia to address overlooked sectors and technologies, keeping in mind that EU member states can, and often do, complement EU-level funding with national funding to establish and operate additional digital hubs.
Source: Samek (2022), Methodology for the Development of Innovation Infrastructures in the Czech Republic: System support for the implementation and management of the National RIS3, https://www.mpo.gov.cz/assets/cz/podnikani/ris3-strategie/projekty-na-podporu-ris3/operacni-program-vyzkum-vyvoj-a-vzdelavani/2023/2/Metodika-rozvoje-inovacnich-infrastruktur-v-CR.pdf.
The government could give more attention to “soft” forms of support, such as online diagnostic tools
Three calls part of the Operational Programme “Technologies and Application for Competitiveness” (OP TAC) have been developed to support SME digitalisation, namely10:
Digital Enterprise: This is a grant scheme supporting the purchase and introduction of advanced non-production digital technologies.11 The subsidy amounts to CZK 1.5-15 million with 30 to 60% covered by the scheme (dependent on both the size and location of the beneficiary). The project must result in a shift in digitalisation: the applicant must meet at least 7 of the 12 DESI digital technology objectives by the end of the project.
Virtual Enterprise is a similar scheme whereby the investment must be linked to a significant shift toward digitalisation. It provides a subsidy of CZK 0.5-5 million, with 30-60% covered by the scheme (dependent on both the size and location of the beneficiary).12
Technology 4.0: It supports SME transformation of business models through digital technologies. The subsidy amounts to CZK 5-50 million with 30 to 60% covered by the scheme (dependent on both the size and location of the beneficiary).13
During the fact-finding mission of the project, it was reported that these instruments have approximately an uptake of 600 each and work well, covering a broad spectrum of Czech SMEs in need of financial support to invest in digital technologies. While it is too early to formally assess the impact of these schemes, it seems likely that they will contribute to the specific objectives of the National SME Support Strategy to “increase the use of digital tools and new technologies in SMEs”. Nonetheless, the uptake of some of these programmes, notably Virtual Enterprise, is relatively modest given the large number of SMEs that are currently not employing digital tools and technologies and the digitalisation targets set by the Czech Government.
Furthermore, the use of subsidies could be complemented by “softer approaches” that focus more on how to use digital technologies in addition to covering part of the costs. The evaluation exercise of the previous OP EIC programmes, for example, referred to the benefit of complementing financial aid with softer forms of support, possibly through dedicated competence centres (European Commission, 2024[4]). While the EDIHs provide these services as part of their portfolio, their outreach has been limited. Similarly, regional innovation centres sometimes offer such programmes (see Box 6.1), but these centres only exist in seven of the fourteen Czech regions, and their scope and range of services is very different depending on the location.
ICOK DIGI is a programme from the Olomouc Region that aims to increase the level of digital transformation of local companies. The programme includes the elaboration of an initial process analysis, including a proposal for a solution, a series of consultations with an independent expert, and participation in workshops aimed at sharing good-practice examples. The interventions are tailored to the specific needs of the company and are based on its level of digital maturity. The project also seeks to set up a long-term strategy for the entire digitisation process of the company and related key activities.
In parallel with tailored consultations, workshops are organised to help attract attention, drawing companies into the issue of digitalisation. Business representatives can also test whether specific technologies or processes are relevant to their business before they decide to eventually invest in the acquisition of specific technologies.
Therefore, there may be scope for additional actions to effectively digitalise small companies in Czechia, especially digital laggards. Some OECD countries have developed comprehensive approaches that, besides grant support and digital hubs or similar structures, include:14
Awareness-raising campaigns: Czechia could do more in this area besides the annual Industry Cluster 4.0 conference, which takes place in February every year.
Digital skills and “soft skills” training programmes for SME owners and managers: These could include online courses, workshops, and in-house training sessions and would require close collaboration with educational institutions, universities and technical schools offering practical training and certification programmes tailored to SME needs. Survey data from the Association of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises and Crafts (AMSP ČR) (Box 6.3) indicate, for example, that the lack of internal expertise or knowledge is the main single barrier facing Czech firms that want to digitalise.
Digitalisation vouchers: These are well suited to the needs of SMEs at the beginning of their digital journey and could serve various objectives besides digitalisation, including the improvement of management skills. An example is Spain’s Digital Kit Voucher Scheme.
Online diagnostic tools: Online diagnostic tools offer a cost-effective and accessible way for policymakers to engage with businesses that are otherwise difficult to reach. These tools generally allow firms to benchmark their performance across various metrics, helping them identify potential areas for improvement. Typically, they also provide guidance on how to address identified weaknesses and direct businesses to relevant support initiatives.
Percentage values
Note: Based on responses by 202 Czech companies with between 5 and 249 employees to an online survey by the Association of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and Tradesmen of the Czech Republic, submitted in May 2023.
Auto-diagnostic tools, in particular, can target different aspects that are crucial for SME performance, such as productivity and innovation. For instance, the “Canada Business Productivity” tool by the Business Development Bank of Canada focuses on productivity, while "COTEC Portugal" emphasises innovation. Firms can benchmark and compare their performance with peers, which helps them identify areas that need improvement. These tools also provide actionable insights and link businesses to relevant support programmes. Czech authorities could consider the development of a similar auto-diagnostic tool. This tool could either be part of a broader toolkit addressing various SME performance aspects or exclusively focus on SME digitalisation. Bpifrance’s Digitalomètre, a toolkit developed by France’s public development bank, offers an example (Box 6.2) (OECD, 2021[5])15.
Bpifrance, France’s public investment bank, has developed Digitalomètre, an innovative online self-diagnostic tool supporting SME digitalisation. Digitalomètre is a free online questionnaire designed to be easily accessible to all SMEs. The user-friendly interface ensures that even businesses with limited digital experience can navigate and complete the assessment. The questionnaire takes approximately 15 minutes to complete, making it a quick and efficient way for businesses to assess their digital maturity without significant time investment.
The tool evaluates various aspects of digital maturity, including digital skills, technology use, online presence, and cybersecurity practices. This comprehensive approach helps businesses gain a holistic understanding of their digital capabilities. Upon completion, businesses receive a detailed report highlighting their digital strengths and weaknesses. The tool provides tailored recommendations for improvement, guiding SMEs in their digital transformation journey.
Digitalomètre allows businesses to benchmark their digital maturity against industry standards and peers. This comparative analysis helps SMEs understand where they stand in the digital landscape and identify areas for competitive improvement. The tool links businesses to relevant support programmes and initiatives, which can be offered by Bpifrance as well as other partners. This integration ensures that SMEs not only identify their digital needs but also have access to the resources required to address such needs.
Source: (OECD, 2021[5]) & « Evaluez votre maturité digitale avec le Digitalomètre », https://www.bpifrance.fr/nos-actualites/evaluez-votre-maturite-digitale-avec-le-digitalometre
Initiatives to digitalise the interactions between the public administration and SMEs can also support business digitalisation
The Strategic Plan for the Digitalisation of Czechia outlines various measures that can contribute to the digital transformation of businesses. One key initiative is the Digital and Information Agency (DIA), whose main role consists in expanding eGovernment services and ensuring inter-operability between state administration and private-sector digital tools. For example, the expansion of data mailboxes (Datové schránky), now mandatory for legal entities, facilitates faster, fully digital communication between businesses and government institutions, reducing paperwork and administrative costs. Similarly, the Moje Daně (My Taxes) Portal has modernised tax filing, making compliance easier for SMEs by integrating online tax reporting and digital payments. While these initiatives go in the right direction, further actions to strengthen the connection between the digitalisation of the public sector and SME digitalisation could include pairing every new government mandatory digital service with simple onboarding materials and the government partnering with technology providers to offer affordable tools to SMEs.
The European Commission (EC) has established several key documents and strategies to support SME digitalisation. The “2030 Digital Compass: the European way for the Digital Decade” is of the most prominent (European Commission, 2021[6]). The resulting Digital Decade Policy Programme (DDPP) aims to operationalise the ambitions of the Compass and has a focus on skills, infrastructure, government and, most relevant for this evaluation report, businesses, with three targets set for 2030:
Tech up-take: 75% of EU companies using Cloud, AI, or Big Data.
Innovators: Doubling the number of EU Unicorns, including through enhanced offer of scale-up finance.
Late adopters: more than 90% of SMEs reaching at least a basic level of digital intensity.
So far, two reports have been released to assess progress towards the objectives of the Digital Decade Roadmap (European Commission, 2024[7]). The main message is that, at the EU level, greater efforts are needed to reach the EU ambitions on all four dimensions of the Compass: skills, infrastructure, government, and businesses. The update of the Czech roadmap was also approved in January 2025.
The Czech Government has aligned its policies with the main EU digitalisation strategies, including through the national RRP, the OP TAC programmes, and the digital innovation hubs, which have all been discussed earlier.
However, the digitalisation goals of the National Digital Decade Strategic Roadmap and the national SME Support Strategy, appear to be disconnected. In particular, the former sets specific, measurable targets like increasing cloud usage and AI adoption among businesses, which are not reflected in the SME Support Strategy. The two national strategic documents could therefore be better aligned, for example by replicating the objectives of the National Roadmap into the SME Support Strategy, especially the following ones:
Raise the proportion of businesses that use cloud services from 40% in 2021 to 60% by 2030.
Raise the proportion of businesses that perform big data analysis from 9.12% in 2020 to 35% by 2030.
Raise the proportion of businesses that use one or more artificial intelligence technologies from 5% in 2021 to 21% by 2030.
Raise the proportion of businesses with a least a basic level of digital intensity from 68% in 2022 to 80% by 2030.
Raise the number of unicorns active in Czechia from 4 in 2022 to 6 by 2030.
Czechia has made notable progress in expanding digital infrastructure and supporting SME digitalisation, but important gaps still remain. While most firms now benefit from basic broadband access, high-speed connections, which are crucial for advanced digital applications, are still unevenly deployed, particularly in rural areas. SMEs have improved their digital practices in recent years, but the country’s slower progress in adopting advanced technologies is reflected in its middling EU ranking in digital adoption indicators. Existing support programmes, such as the European Digital Innovation Hubs and OP TAC grant schemes, offer valuable services but require broader outreach, long-term funding stability, and complementary initiatives – e.g., awareness campaigns, coaching, and diagnostic tools – to maximise their impact, especially among lagging SMEs. Continued improvements in digital public administration also present an opportunity to reinforce business digitalisation efforts, helping Czech companies fully harness the benefits of the digital transition.
Against this backdrop, the main policy recommendations to enhance SME digitalisation in Czechia include:
Aligning the digitalisation objectives of the SME Strategy with the business digitalisation objectives of the Strategic Plan for the Digitalisation of Czechia.
Moving ahead with plans to address gaps in the national coverage of high-speed broadband, especially in rural and peripheral areas of the country.
Increasing outreach and awareness efforts, especially towards digital laggards, many of which are smaller SMEs, in collaboration with local business associations.
Complementing grant support with business development services, such as skills training and workshops, consultancy services and mentorship programmes.
Establishing a diversified and stable source of income for the digital innovation hubs, both those funded by the Digital Europe Programme and those that are not. In this respect, it is also important to ensure that digital innovation hubs operate at sufficient scale and cover most relevant thematic areas and regions of Czechia.
Developing an auto-diagnostic tool that allows Czech firms to assess their “digital readiness” in an accessible and standardised manner.
Piloting a digital voucher scheme, whereby selected SMEs can receive small funding for simple digitalisation services and technologies, assessing its impact after 3-5 years, and adjusting the scheme accordingly.
Leveraging the digitalisation of the public administration to encourage more SMEs to take up digital technologies.
References
[9] Czech Republic – Ministry of Industry and Trade (2014), Ex-ante Evaluation of the Operational Programme Enterprise and Innovation for Competitiveness 2014 – 2020, Ministry of Industry and Trade, Prague.
[7] European Commission (2024), 2030 Digital Decade: Report on the state of the digital decade 2024, European Commission, Brussels.
[2] European Commission (2024), Czechia 2024 Digital Decade Country Report.
[4] European Commission (2024), Study supporting the ex post evaluation of the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (EIP) 2007-2013, European Commission, Brussels.
[6] European Commission (2021), 2030 Digital Compass: the European way for the Digital Decade.
[3] European Commission - Joint Research Centre (2024), European Digital Innovation Hubs Network’s activities and customers, EC - JRC.
[1] European Investment Bank (2020), Financing the digitalisation of small and medium-sized enterprises: The enabling role of digital innovation hubs, European Investment Bank, Luxembourg.
[5] OECD (2021), SME and Entrepreneurship Policy in the Slovak Republic, OECD Studies on SMEs and Entrepreneurship, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/9097a251-en.
[8] Samek (2022), Methodology for the Development of Innovation Infrastructures in the Czech Republic: System support for the implementation and management of the National RIS, Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade.
← 2. See: Eurostat, “How many citizens had basic digital skills in 2021?”, 30 March 2022, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/-/ddn-20220330-1.
← 3. Business digital intensity is defined by the degree by which businesses use digital technologies and services in their operations.
← 4. See website of the Czech Recovery and Resilience Plan: https://commission.europa.eu/business-economy-euro/economic-recovery/recovery-and-resilience-facility/country-pages/czechias-recovery-and-resilience-plan_en
← 5. For further information, see: https://european-digital-innovation-hubs.ec.europa.eu/edih-catalogue/edih-ova.
← 7. For further information, see: https://european-digital-innovation-hubs.ec.europa.eu/home.
← 8. An overview of existing digital innovation hubs in Czechia is available at the following page: “Czech Digital Innovation Hubs: who are they and how can they help?”, https://robohub.org/czech-digital-innovation-hubs-who-are-they-and-how-can-they-help/.
← 9. See: Samek (2022), Methodology for the Development of Innovation Infrastructures in the Czech Republic: System support for the implementation and management of the National RIS3, https://www.mpo.gov.cz/assets/cz/podnikani/ris3-strategie/projekty-na-podporu-ris3/operacni-program-vyzkum-vyvoj-a-vzdelavani/2023/2/Metodika-rozvoje-inovacnich-infrastruktur-v-CR.pdf
← 10. OP TAC, which is funded by the ERDF, does not support companies based in the Prague.
← 11. “Non-production” relates to business functions outside the direct manufacturing or production processes. These include technologies that enhance business operations, management, and digital infrastructure rather than physical production such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems or Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools.
← 12. Further information at: https://www.agentura-api.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/digitalni-podnik-vyzva-i-cs-en-gb-c.pdf
← 13. Further information at: https://www.agentura-api.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/digitalni-podnik-technologie-4.0-vyzva-i-1.pdf.
← 14. Examples include Spain (Go Digital Programme), Germany (Mittelstand-Digital Programme) and the United Kingdom (Digital Boost Initiative). While these initiatives differ one from the other, they share a strong focus on raising awareness among SMEs (including those that are not at the digital forefront) and providing soft support measures on how to digitalise.
← 15. See: https://www.bpifrance.fr/nos-actualites/evaluez-votre-maturite-digitale-avec-le-digitalometre. Other examples with an online auto-diagnostic toolkit specific for SME digitalisation include Spain (https://www.acelerapyme.es/quieres-conocer-el-grado-de-digitalizacion-de-tu-pyme), Belgium’s Wallonia (https://www.1890.be/solution/les-outils-gratuits-de-digital-wallonia-pour-mesure-votre-maturite-numerique/), and Canada (https://www.bdc.ca/en/articles-tools/entrepreneur-toolkit/business-assessments/digital-maturity)..