Beyond the health crisis Tunisia has been experiencing in recent weeks, the economic impact of the coronavirus is already being heavily felt by many companies that suffer in silence as they are threatened with bankruptcy and closure.
Moreover, at a time when the coronavirus is receding in China, it is still spreading to the rest of the world and therefore disrupting the functioning of the global economy.
However, despite this very serious and worrying shock, Tunisia is still working hard to find concrete solutions to “save” its economy already considered very fragile, for years …
Bechir Boujday, a member of the Executive Board of the Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts (UTICA) said Thursday “the private sector has lost several small and medium enterprises. »
Speaking on Shems FM, he added that “35% of SMEs are in difficulty and are threatened with bankruptcy”.
He indicated, moreover, that “165 thousand jobs were lost during the first wave of the pandemic.”
“Even the measures taken by the government to help companies in difficulty, such as debt planning and deferral of bank payments and installments, have not been implemented,” he pointed out.
It should be recalled that since the spread of COVID-19 in Tunisia, many private companies have repeatedly sounded the alarm and called on the government to launch an arsenal of concrete measures to support all Tunisian companies especially during this very difficult period given the economic and political crisis in the country.
2390 companies impacted by the coronavirus crisis
It is important to remember that 2390 companies have registered since last March on the electronic platform ”Entreprise.finances.gov.tn” designed to alleviate the impact of the covid-19 epidemic.
These companies have submitted 5270 applications to benefit from fiscal and financial measures to overcome the economic repercussions of this crisis.
61% of these applications are inter-related. Moreover, a working team composed of experts in taxation, finance, IT and programming has been created to accelerate the electronic processing of these requests in order to respond to the companies concerned as soon as possible.
With the current health crisis, linked to the coronavirus, Tunisia, like all countries, is experiencing, many Tunisians are undoubtedly at risk of losing their jobs.
The Tunisian economy is in the grip of major disruptions caused by this dangerous virus which continues to spread from one day to another and at high speed.
Therefore, the impact could be significantly less if an internationally coordinated response is put in place to support the economy and employment in Tunisia.
