How does the V4 region stand in global comparison and what do the elites in the region think about new technologies? This policy paper offers insight into opinions of leading stakeholders from the associations of industries and start-ups, trade unions, consumer organizations, the academic field and politics about their vision of the V4 region´s future and what can be done to optimize the benefits of new technologies and limit their downsides.

Overall 65 stakeholders from the region provided either direct interviews based on unified questionnaire or were directly engaged at official roundtables attended or chaired by one of the authors. In addition to this, opinions of 23 stakeholders were also reflected from media. The syntheses of the opinions is in four chapters for each state of the V4 group, including analyses of strengths and weaknesses and policy recommendations for every country. Opinions on the prospects of the V4 region and its relationship with Germany and the EU in connection with advent of new technologies are presented in the final chapters of the paper with an aim of boosting national and regional debates on these questions.

This paper was published with support of the International Visegrad Fund and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom. The authors are based in the Association for International Affairs – AMO (Czech Republic), Free Market Foundation (Hungary), Liberté! Foundation (Poland) and F. A. Hayek Foundation (Slovakia).