At an extraordinary Cabinet of Ministers meeting on 14 July this year, two new support programmes were approved to promote employment in order to overcome the consequences of the Covid-19 crisis for exporting and tourism sector companies.

“In government, we are still evaluating how to keep Covid-19 virus containment requirements balanced with economic ones, so that businesses can safely continue their operations. Although economic activity is starting to rise following the partial lifting of Covid-19 restrictions, a proportion of companies still have no opportunity to resume operating at full capacity, which results in difficulties retaining employees due to partial downtime. Likewise, some companies are still experiencing cash flow and supply chain disruptions, deferred payments and a lack of working capital. Therefore, the Ministry of Economics is proposing two further new support programmes for crisis-affected exporting and tourism sector companies. Under these support programmes, these businesses will be able to receive a one-off grant or subsidy from the state, the size of which will depend on the amount of taxes paid. The state support is intended to compensate for employee wages. Business owners will be able to apply for support once the support programmes have been approved by the European Commission, tentatively at the end of July this year,” emphasises Minister of Economics Jānis Vitenbergs.

The total funding for the support programmes is 70.2 million euros, including 51 million euros for support to exporting companies and 19.2 million euros for support to tourism sector businesses. It is planned that under both programmes, support could be provided to approximately 7,500 companies and 78,000 employees.