Pursuant to the initiative of the President of Ukraine, the Government and the National Bank have developed the first two programs of rapid credit support for small businesses and presented them to the Head of State.
“Small business suffers the most during quarantine because it does not have as big a financial cushion as large business. The whole world is developing support programs for SMEs. I am glad that in a few days we have managed to find the necessary financial instruments to provide real support to the sector,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal noted that reformatting the 5-7-9 program for its effectiveness in quarantine conditions would be the fastest help. In particular, it will be significantly simplified and aimed at refinancing the existing loans. The second program is being created from scratch and is now being finalized.
Both programs will provide conditions for businesses to retain almost the entire payroll and the number of employees, and aim at minimizing unemployment and creating conditions for a rapid restart of the economy after quarantine.
“With these programs, we will save jobs as well as some of our tax payments. It is us who must protect small businesses now. And it is small businesses that maintain our economy,” the President stressed.
The Prime Minister informed that the implementation of the programs would start immediately after their finalization. The government hopes that it will be possible to start providing the first support in the near future. Work is also underway on programs for new entrepreneurs and mid-sized businesses.
I bears reminding that on April 6, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with representatives of the government, the NBU and the banking sector, and initiated the creation of new financial instruments to support small and medium-sized businesses during the COVID-19 epidemic.