Czech Business Today

On 14^th April, the Czech Government approved a plan for relaxing the current restrictive measures. As of 20^th April, some new shops can be opened, namely crafts shops, farmers’ markets and car dealerships. A week later, all shops of a size of 200 m² or smaller, except those in malls and shopping centres, can reopen again and as of 11^th May, all shops of the size of 1000 m² or smaller can join them as well. The HORECA sector will have to wait longer for the relaxation of the restrictive measures, but as of 25^th May, restaurants and pub gardens could reopen also. The last wave of relaxation is planned for 8^th June as malls and shopping centres will be able to operate again.

The proposed plan depends on the developments related to the spread of the coronavirus. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 crisis, the measures implemented by the Czech Government have been aimed mainly at containing the spread of the disease and supporting both self-employed persons and businesses in order to mitigate the negative impacts of the crisis. However, business associations stress that the support for companies needs to be long-term; otherwise it will only have minor effects that would help companies to survive the immediate shock. The same goes for the EU Recovery Plan which should reflect the need for financial liquidity in the long-term, saving jobs and for deployment of a secure digital infrastructure.

 The Czech Government applies these forms of support for businesses:

• The s upport for s elf-employed p ersons i n a form of a one-off financial aid of 25 000 CZK (approximately 900 EUR), that would cover the period between 12^th March and 30^th April. The self-employed persons have to prove that they have suffered economic damage because of the application of extraordinary measured issued by the Government. The Government recently announced that it would continue to pay the aid to self-employed persons for the month of May and is also ready to pay the same amount for the month of June.
• Antivirus programme, which allows the Sate to financially contribute to companies in order to cover the payrolls. The total budget of the programme is 1.2 billion CZK (approximately 43 million EUR). This is one of the measures Czech employers’ and entrepreneurs’ organizations supported strongly, as it will allow companies to keep their employees even when production slows down, reducing unemployment.
• Technology COVID 19, which is a programme focused on SMEs that would either acquire new devices and equipment for the production of medical devices and personal protective equipment, would expand their existing production to produce such products, or would transform their production lines for this purpose. The budget of the programme is 300 mil. CZK (approximately 11 mil. EUR) and financial support will range from 250 000 to 20 mil. CZK (9 000 to 725 000 EUR).
• Czech Rise Up, which is a programme which will support acquisition of material for the production of protective and medical devices or reimbursement of labour costs for implementation of new solutions that can be immediately put into practice, but of which mass production hasn’t started yet. Furthermore, it will support selected non-investment expenditures on the use of existing technologies to bring new medical and non-medical solutions, and development of new products that could be used for new medical and non-medical solutions against COVID 19 into practice. The budget of the programme is 200 mil. CZK (approximately 7.2 mil. EUR) and the financial support will be up to 5 mil. CZK (approximately 180 000 EUR).