Many businesses across the country will need financial support to survive the coming weeks and months. For this reason, the Chamber of Commerce has formulated 11 additional measures.
The first measure proposed is a more flexible version of partial unemployment, which should be valid for the remainder of 2020 at least. The Chamber of Commerce also suggested the creation of an economic stability fund to help those businesses which must stay closer for longer, and it also asked that businesses be given a flexible repayment plan if they need to pay back any financial support.
The Chamber of Commerce criticised the fact that not all sectors have been treated equally in terms of resuming economic activity, and warned the situation could get worse if shops in bordering regions reopened ahead of businesses within the Grand Duchy. It therefore recommended that shops and restaurants be allowed to open once more in Luxembourg, provided sanitary regulations are kept, particularly physical distancing.
All 11 proposals can be found on the Chamber of Commerce website, explained in the form of short videos.
Carlo Thelen, the director of the Chamber of Commerce, said the stability and growth plan sent to Brussels on Thursday by the government showed the stark impact of the crisis on the economy and the State's finances. He said in conclusion to this plan, more support was needed to keep businesses afloat.
Many of these businesses cannot resume normal activity even with confinement measures lifting, so their only way forward would be a progressive and partial reopening. Thelen argued that even a partial reopening would help businesses to find a way out of the financial turmoil caused by the coronavirus crisis, but also underlined the need for non-reimbursable support, even if this has an impact on the State budget.
Thelen said the sector most impacted by the confinement measures were commercial businesses not involved in supplying food, in the Horesca sector, and several craft businesses. An increase in commercial taxes would be damning for such businesses, he said.
