The conference was held in the Chateau Petrovice (Petrovice u Karviné) under the auspice of the rector of Silesian University in Opava Assoc. Prof. Pavel Tuleja and the dean of Silesian University in Opava, School of Business Administration in Karvina Prof. Daniel Stavárek, with financial support of the European Structural and Investment Funds, Operational Programme Research, Development and Education.

For both days, almost fifty participants discussed the issues of the economic and social spheres at this challenging time. Keynote speakers at the plenary session presented interesting and widely discussed topics in the field of taxes (Prof. Danuše Nerudová from Mendel University Brno), support for job retention in Slovakia during the pandemic (Assoc. Prof. Renáta Pakšiová from Economic University in Bratislava) or the financing of universities in the Czech Republic (Assoc. Prof. Pavel Tuleja and Assoc Prof. Michal Tvrdoň from our faculty). A special (online) guest was Assoc. Prof. Hafezali Iqbal Hussain form Taylor´s University, Selangor, Malaysia, with a presentation focused on effects of innovations on emissions in ASEAN countries.

In the following parallel sections, the issues of the labor market, financial markets, social benefits, distribution of pensions or cohesion policy, etc. were also lively discussed. Informal discussions then continued until the evenings.

Thanks thus belong not only to the actively involved participants of the conference, but also to the organising team, which took care of the smooth and undisturbed course of the conference.

We hope that this conference was stimulating and beneficial for all participants and they participate again in the coming years.