The battle ahead is a battle to preserve liquidity, especially the most sensitive and numerous micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and the fight to preserve jobs, says Serbian Chamber of Commerce President, Marko Cadez.
“As successful as we are, how quickly we respond in a timely and proper manner today, how much we will preserve our economic base, the more we will have a firmer base and a greater chance of a relatively quick recovery”, Chadez said.
He said that the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, in order to assist companies in doing so, and to facilitate the country’s crisis management, submitted to the Government its proposal of priority measures, based on the recommendations of representative companies and the opinions of renowned consulting companies.
Chadez stressed that “there is no dilemma that the number one national priority in recent weeks has been, and will remain, protecting people, treating patients and, as far as possible, further preventing the spread of the infection”.
Noting that businessmen expect and want tax breaks, such as a partial reduction and prolongation of tax payments, Chadez says that after reducing the NBS benchmark interest rate to 1.75 percent and introducing a loan repayment moratorium, “state intervention measures are now coming from the domain of fiscal policy”.
“Our, that is, the attitude of the economy is that there should be at least three sets of measures in this package: those that will bring tax relief to employers, then cover part of the costs from state funds to compensate employees (especially liabilities to employees who, due to the decrease in the volume of jobs, do not working for the sick) as well as favorable loans for the liquidity of the companies”, Chadez said.
According to him, the burden of this crisis will have to be borne by everyone – both the state and banks and the economy and employees.
“The biggest challenge is to ensure the liquidity of this part of the economy and preserve as many jobs as possible, because micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in most countries employ the largest number of people”, Chadez said.
“The biggest support, at the moment, as announced, will be able to count on those who suffered the brunt of the first wave, who have no choice or ability to cope on their own, whose business has completely stopped the epidemic, such as tourism and services that are not working now, but also other sectors that are affected, which depend on the continued functioning of the entire economy”, Chadez told Blic Business.
