Nowadays paying taxes and efforts to improve the business climate in Ukraine are true patriotism. For more than a month the country has been living in the harsh conditions of quarantine and restrictions on particular activities such as passenger transportation, entertainment and cultural institutions (cinemas, theaters, exhibitions etc.), catering and others.
According to a survey conducted by the Union 29% of entrepreneurs stopped working (micro and small business). One third of business owners (mainly micro) declare a 90-100% fall in income since the beginning of quarantine. These entrepreneurs have already fired up to 50% of employees. Medium business owners claim about reducing income by 25-50% compared to the pre-quarantine period and have already fired from 10 to 25% of employees.
Of course human life is of the highest value but it should be borne in mind that mass layoffs, bankruptcy and economic downturns also have their price. Thus, according to experts one month stay of the country in a hard quarantine reduces annual GDP growth by 5%. Based on the current state of affairs and the analysis of countries’ experience, the business community united in the COVID-19 Business Headquarters considers it necessary to move to a more cost-effective quarantine model in early May that will enable the business to resume its activities with simultaneous implementation of set of measures aimed at identifying and isolating infected citizens.
The business community stands for:
- gradual resumption of business activities by introducing flexible regional restrictive measures depending on the epidemiological situation in the region;
- establishing different forms of restriction for individual citizens and not for the whole population (isolation is needed for infected citizens, persons who had contact with the infected citizens, persons who returned from abroad during April, people who have reached a certain age taking into account the peculiarities of their current work);
- defining of safe business conditions during the quarantine:
- control of the number of visitors who are simultaneously in the room (1 person per 10 square meters of the room);
- keeping distance between people (not less than 1.5 meters);
- use of protective masks by visitors;
- providing workers with personal protective equipment;
- surface treatment indoors using disinfectants at least once every 2 hours.
In our opinion the following businesses need restoration in compliance with safe working conditions established by the Government:
from 24.04.2020:
- trade of consumer goods (wholesale and retail trade) in separate premises or buildings if their retail space does not exceed 400 square meters;
- repair of consumer goods.
If morbidity in Ukraine is reduced we propose to restore the following spheres from 12.05.2020 in compliance with safe working conditions established by the Government: - providing a full range of services to the population (consumer services);
- work of catering institutions;
- regular and irregular transportation of passengers by road in urban, suburban, intercity, intra-regional and inter-regional traffic;
- tourism;
- work of markets and fairs;
- work of hotels.
From 01.06.2020 – all business entities regardless of the activity.
The business community united in the COVID-19 Business Headquarters calls on the Government to take into account the opinion of the business community when preparing amendments to the Cabinet of Ministers Resolution on 11.03.2020 No. 211 “On prevention of the spread of COVID-19 acute respiratory disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in Ukraine”.
