The imperative to swiftly embrace a low-carbon, climate-resilient economy while harnessing the opportunities of digitalisation underscores the urgent need for action. Prioritising quality infrastructure investments is a critical pillar to delivering on these goals and mitigating potential negative impacts, including the risks of increased territorial disparities. Regional and local governments, as major public investors in infrastructure development, alongside central government, are pivotal actors.

At a time of increased pressure on government budgets at all levels, improving infrastructure governance can help ensure that scarce resources are used to pursue economic, social, and environmental priorities. Relatively low-cost changes to governance processes and practices and investments in capacity can have outsized effects on the effectiveness and efficiency of large infrastructure investments. Improving governance across sectors and levels of government can help increase the efficiency of investment spending and promote fiscal sustainability.

This chapter provides an overview of the Czech public investment system across levels of government. It depicts the landscape of infrastructure governance at the national and subnational levels and finds that the infrastructure-decision-making process in Czechia is fragmented across sectors and levels of government. Major trends and issues in infrastructure investment are highlighted, including the significant role of EU funds. Finally, it provides an overview of institutions in the transport, housing and energy sectors, as well as cross-sectoral institutions.

This chapter analyses challenges in Czechia’s infrastructure governance system at the national level and makes recommendations to address them. It considers whether national institutions and processes foster efficient and effective investment decisions and good governance practices in infrastructure investment. It focuses on three critical, interlinked phases in the infrastructure governance cycle: 1) long-term strategic planning and co-ordination across sectors; 2) project selection, appraisal and prioritisation; and 3) the procurement and delivery of infrastructure. Across these phases, it explores the mobilisation of private investment, stakeholder engagement and the monitoring and evaluation of outcomes. The analysis and recommendations are supported by concrete international examples, references and data from selected OECD and European Union countries.

This chapter analyses the challenges in the Czechia infrastructure governance system at the subnational level and makes recommendations to address them. After providing an overview of the main features and challenges of subnational infrastructure in Czechia, it focuses on ways to implement a place-based approach to infrastructure planning and to build strong and fruitful partnerships across governments. It also looks at the importance of strengthening inter-municipal co-operation and increasing subnational administrative capacity to improve the quality and efficiency of infrastructure investment. Finally, the chapter examines how to increase the funding and financing capacity of Czech subnational governments to meet infrastructure investment needs.