March 16 (SeeNews) - Foreign investors and managers said they have asked Romania's government to protect businesses and employees from the adverse effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the economy.
"State support measures are needed to prevent the blocking or bankruptcy of otherwise healthy sectors or companies," the Foreign Investors Council (FIC) and Concordia Employer Confederation said in a joint letter to the government on Sunday.
According to the two institutions, the authorities and the business community must both make their best to preserve the social-economic and fiscal-budgetary balance and also take immediate actions to help the most affected sectors of the economy.
They ask the government to postpone the payment of social contributions by employers for a period of three months, as this is by far their biggest expense, estimated at a total of 10 billion lei ($2.3 billion/2.1 billion euro) per month. Postponing the payment of social contributions will allow affected sectors to lay off as few employees as possible, the letter reads.
Also, the government should come up quick with state-guaranteed loan schemes to support small and medium-sized businesses for which deferral of tax payments is not enough. Moreover, the government should extend or adapt state-guaranteed programmes so that banks can grant loans to clients temporarily affected by the coronavirus crisis.
FIC and Concordia also suggest that the government must quickly access financing lines opened by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
The two organisations are asking for specific measures for both retail and transport sectors in order to ensure continuous supply of food and medicines, gas, electricity and fuel to citizens. Investors and managers are also warning the government that the tourism sector is very exposed to the risk of bankruptcies and needs rapid intervention.
In order to better protect employees, the two organisations propose to urgently update Romania's Labour Code in order to facilitate work from home or from a distance.
Concordia Employer Confederation was established in 2007 and brings together the most powerful sectoral federations in the Romanian economy, including seven of the top ten companies by number of employees and turnover.
FIC members represent a significant share of foreign direct investment in Romania, bringing together 120 of the biggest companies in Romania in terms of turnover.
($=4.8174 lei)