On February 27th, 2020 (two weeks before the declared “state of emergency”), BIA issued recommendations oriented towards economic operators for prevention measures, in case of a crisis event related to the COVID-19 virus.

In the period from March 13 to June 8, 2020: 

  • BIA prepared a total of 42 official statements, most of which refer to the measures in support of the economic operators affected by the state of emergency.
  • A series of meetings were held with responsible representatives of the Bulgarian Government and the National Assembly, during which the interests of various economic sectors and business in general were defended, in order to overcome the consequences of the coronavirus.
  • Representatives of BIA participated in a total of five online meetings of the National Council for Tripartite Cooperation (NCTC), held on March 27th, March 28th, April 13th, May 21st and on June 10th , during which the main topic of discussion were namely the measures to compensate economic operators affected by the imposition of a state of emergency, incl. the so-called measure 60/40.
  • Throughout the period after March 13th, 2020, BIA’s team was permanently available to the members of the Association, assisting with legal, financial and other consultations and information.
  • 30 force majeure certificates were issued and more than 100 consultations were held on the urgent actions for immediate notification of the counterparty to the existence of force majeure circumstances.
  • Over 100 companies have been consulted, and 50 of them have prepared documents for applying for anti-crisis measures to support micro, small and medium enterprises through OPIC.
  • Five analyzes have been made, one of which is for Bulgaria's place in the world exports in 2019, and the other four fall under a project funded by OPHRD and aimed at generational problems in the workplace (the so-called silver economy).

In support of the Bulgarian enterprises BIA developed and launched the "Electronic mutual aid exchange" on March 18th,2020, where companies have the opportunity to register ads both for the search or supply of products, services or the ability to hire employees who are at risk of losing their jobs during the state of emergency.

In the first days of the state of emergency, BIA launched on its website a special section named "Responsible business in times of crisis", in order to present good practices for sustainable business development in times of crisis and issued an open letter on the disclosure of the names of donors - companies and individuals.

Five regional chambers of commerce - in Shumen, Dobrich, Varna, Kardzhali and Ruse, carried out their own campaigns to raise funds to limit the spread of the coronavirus in the respective municipalities.

In the course of the epidemic, between March 13th and March 31st, two online surveys were conducted with the aim of establishing the impact of COVID-19 on the business and the willingness of companies to take advantage of the so-called "Measure 60/40". The first survey included 806 companies, and the second - 759.

Date: 31.08.2020

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