diff --git a/TBF/UI/Settings/DatabaseSettingsDlg.cs b/TBF/UI/Settings/DatabaseSettingsDlg.cs
index 4f6dcd442..41ced0acd 100644
--- a/TBF/UI/Settings/DatabaseSettingsDlg.cs
+++ b/TBF/UI/Settings/DatabaseSettingsDlg.cs
@@ -182,7 +182,7 @@ namespace TBF.UI.Settings
 
                     log.ErrorFormat("Going to create an empty configuration database '{0}'", databaseName);
                     ExecuteMySqlCmd(string.Format("DROP DATABASE `{0}`;", databaseName), userName);
-                    ExecuteMySqlCmd(string.Format("CREATE DATABASE `{0}`;", databaseName), userName);
+                    ExecuteMySqlCmd(string.Format("CREATE DATABASE `{0}` CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci;", databaseName), userName);
                     Config.FluentCommon.CreateEmptyConfigDB(bench.ProceduresDBSettings.DbType, connectionString);
                     log.ErrorFormat("An empty configuration database '{0}' was created", databaseName);
 
@@ -223,7 +223,7 @@ namespace TBF.UI.Settings
 
                     log.ErrorFormat("Going to create an empty results database '{0}'", databaseName);
                     ExecuteMySqlCmd(string.Format("DROP DATABASE `{0}`;", databaseName), userName);
-                    ExecuteMySqlCmd(string.Format("CREATE DATABASE `{0}`;", databaseName), userName);
+                    ExecuteMySqlCmd(string.Format("CREATE DATABASE `{0}` CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci;", databaseName), userName);
                     DB.DbType = bench.WaterMetersDBSettings.DbType;
                     DB.ConnectionString = connectionString;
                     DB.CreateEmptyDB();
@@ -364,7 +364,7 @@ namespace TBF.UI.Settings
 
                 log.ErrorFormat("Going to import database '{0}' from file {1}", databaseName, inputFileName);
                 ExecuteMySqlCmd(string.Format("DROP DATABASE `{0}`;", databaseName), userName);
-                ExecuteMySqlCmd(string.Format("CREATE DATABASE `{0}`;", databaseName), userName);
+                ExecuteMySqlCmd(string.Format("CREATE DATABASE `{0}` CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci;", databaseName), userName);
                 ExecuteMySqlCmd(string.Format("SOURCE {0}", inputFileName), userName, databaseName);
                 log.ErrorFormat("Database {0} was imported from file {1}", databaseName, inputFileName);
             }