History of Technoexport

Technoexport Praha was established by a decree of the Ministry of Foreign Trade on 18 September 1953, at the time as a foreign trade enterprise involved in the export of complete industrial plants, with its business activity being defined as foreign trade, especially the "export of complete industrial plants and equipment, namely power, mining, metallurgical, chemical, and food plants and equipment."

Immediately after its establishment, Technoexport commenced its first export of supplies of operation units for oil processing to the countries of the former Soviet Union as well as to China and Egypt; operation units for beet-sugar factories to China, India, Syria, Egypt, and other countries; and complete tyre plants to Indonesia, India, and Cambodia.

In the mid 1960s, Technoexport’s initial broad export programme was streamlined to focus on the chemical, rubber, and food industries. This export programme was aimed mainly at the production of its then principal domestic partner – the prominently specialised company Chepos Brno. Large-scale cooperation also progressed with Chemoprojekt Praha and with the construction companies PS Gottwaldov and IPS Praha. In the same period, an extensive expansion got its greenlight in the mentioned commodities in trading with a good number of other countries.

The last significant statutory and organisation change in the period of the so-called foreign trade monopoly (i.e., until the end of the 1980s) came about in connection with implementation of the decree of the Ministry of Foreign Trade, which shaped Technoexport a joint-stock company on 1 January 1969 with registered capital of 120 000 000 Czechoslovak crowns, this being set up with the founding members involving 58 major business partners of the original Technoexport.

In 1969 a new era began in the career of Technoexport when the company was awarded and entrusted with the construction of the first turn-key oil refinery in Iraq. Simultaneously Technoexport was getting more and more competence in the standing and reputation as a dominant company in Czechoslovakia active in imports of petrochemical and pharmaceutical investment units.

Logically, an entirely different foreign trade environment appeared after 1989 as a result of the liberalisation of Czechoslovak foreign trade and transfer of the economy to a market economy. Technoexport a.s. was one of the few original foreign trade companies to have managed the transition successfully and survived challenging tough domestic and foreign competition.

For the duration of its more than fifty years of existence, Technoexport a.s. exported more than 2270 complete investment projects to more than 40 countries around the world, with a good number of these investment projects still operating reliably, thus providing good references for our export activities in future years.