The Swiss-Serbian Chamber of Commerce has conducted the online survey “The Impact of Covid-19 on Business Operations” among its members in November 2020. The aim of this survey was to obtain important insights into the main challenges that the Swiss-Serbian business community is experiencing due to the Covid-19 crisis and to better understand the needs and concerns of these companies.
As the results of the survey show, business operations of 70,4% of respondents have been only slightly or moderately affected by COVID-19 pandemic, whereas 29,6% of respondents have declared that they have been strongly affected by the pandemic:
When it comes to the Government’s measures of support to companies, 70,4% of the surveyed companies have made use of the provided economic measures, with the aim to better overcome Covid-19 business challenges.
Having a deeper look at potential Government support measures, the top three categories that respondents would deem the most helpful in coping with the Covid crisis are:
- Tax waivers or temporary tax breaks – mentioned by 63% of respondents
- Employment programmes, such as temporary unemployment programmes or social security waivers – mentioned by 44,4% of respondents
- Financial programmes, such as low interest credit lines or credit guarantees – mentioned by 33,3% of respondents
Other selected measures (mentioned by fewer than 30% of respondents) included rent subsidies, cash transfers, support to self-employed and reduction to tariffs on imported inputs.
More than half of the respondents (approx. 60 %) confirmed that Covid-19 has not impacted their investments plans in Serbia for the next year 2021.
With regards to the digitalization development of their companies, 63% of the respondents have digitized their business operations (slightly to significantly) due to the Covid-19 impact.
About the Chamber
Established in March 2014, the Swiss-Serbian Chamber of Commerce (SSCC) was created as a result of the growing interest of the Swiss business community in Serbia to further strengthen economic relations between Serbia and Switzerland, in the form of starting an organization that would work to improve the dialogue between the two countries, promote Swiss values in Serbia such as quality, innovation, and compliance with legal regulations, and provide new opportunities for business networking.
As a non-profit, private association, the SSCC acts as a representative of the Swiss-Serbian business community, committed to furthering the development of lasting long-term Swiss-Serbian business relations. Today the Chamber counts approx. 70 member companies and has developed a successful cooperation with the partner-institution in Switzerland, ‘’Switzerland Global-Enterprise’’ S-GE.