Rut Bízková
Former Minister of Environment of the Czech Republic; former Director of the Central Bohemian Innovation Center (SIC)
Rut Bízková is involved in the management of research and innovation, energy and environmental protection. Currently she collaborates on RE:START, a program for the revitalization of structurally affected areas. She is co-author of several book publications, for example ‘The Northwest transformations’ (with Iva Ritschelová and Stanislav Štýs) and ‘Industry 4.0 – The Challenge for the Czech Republic’ (editor prof. Mařík) as well as several national and regional strategies. She is an advisor to the Prime Minister of the Czech Government, in previous positions director of Central Bohemian Innovation Center, chairwoman of the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic, Deputy Minister and Minister of the Environment, advisor to the Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade responsible for energy, metallurgy and construction. Rut Bízková promotes the digitization of all public services and research in the public interest. She also supports the interconnection of research and art as two sides of creativity.
The Czech Republic is very specific in its own way and "expensive in operation": despite the fact that the majority of the population lives in the cities, it has more than 6200 municipalities, most of which are small municipalities with less than a thousand inhabitants. This is the most important reason why we have, for example, one of the densest road and rail networks in Europe.
The Czech Republic is a rural area - with 134 inhabitants / sq. km slightly exceeding the limit for rural areas (OECD 130 inhabitants / sq. km). The borderlands of the Czech Republic have other specifics, especially in north-western Bohemia and northern Moravia. In both cases, these are areas rich in energy raw materials. The local industry consists almost exclusively of the mining and extraction of black and brown coal, the largest energy sources of the Czech Republic, and of large chemical factories. This also implies the different character of local villages. However, in rural areas of the Czech Republic, in general, villages are depopulated, the population ages and needs help, especially social and health services. It is a great challenge for the Czech Republic - not only to take care of what is needed, but also to find ways to make people happy and give them everything necessary for a rich and full life in more remote areas of the country. One of the decisive tools that can contribute to this is high-speed internet.