Last year the Czech Republic put in a pitch for BMW's new plant. The site they earmarked was in the small city of Kolin, an hour's drive east of Prague. It just happens to be the hometown of outgoing prime minister Milos Zeman.
The Czechs lost - the plant went to Leipzig in east Germany. When Mr Zeman told the German Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, of his family connection with Kolin he says the chancellor told him: "Well, I've got an aunt who lives in Leipzig."
But the Czech prime minister reckons he got the last laugh. Snubbed by BMW, Kolin wooed and won the competition to attract Toyota and PSA Peugeot Citroën - two car firms seeking a site for a joint venture to build a new small car. More money and more jobs than BMW, chortles Mr Zeman.
Not that the Czechs won the Toyota/PSA deal easily. With $1.4 billion in investment, some 3,000 direct jobs, and up to 10,000 more expected to be created indirectly on the back of the plant, the Czech Republic faced competition from neighbouring Poland and is believed to have won the verdict by a short head.
Geography was a key factor. As PSA president Jean-Martin Folz put it: "The Czech Republic has a central position at the heart of the Europe of the future, right in the heart of a major market for the automotive industry in which it has long played a role. The country's industrial capability is undisputed."
An incentive package of some $62 million for land purchase and infrastructure development - the biggest single investment of its kind by the Czech authorities in a greenfield development - must have helped, too.
- Guardian Service