Covid-19: Foreign government support measures for businesses
The financial impact of the Covid-19 crisis on companies is dramatic. Many states have taken measures to mitigate these consequences to some extent (economic unemployment, deferral of social security contributions, longer payment periods, loans, etc.). You will find some of them summarized below.
In the European Union
The European Commission (DG Growth – SME unit) has listed the measures taken by Member States thanks to the network of SME Envoys in the 27 Member States.
Please note, however, that these overviews are living documents. New measures are taken almost every day.
Check here what chambers across Europe are doing for their business communities.
The Federation and the Chamber of Commerce of Belgian Luxembourg mourn Mr Roiseux
We announce with great sadness that the President of CCI Luxembourg belge, Mr André Roiseux, passed away this weekend due to the coronavirus. All our thoughts go out to his family, his loved ones and colleagues.
The Chamber farewell message is available here, in French.
Covid-19: We are here to help!
What are the obligations for employers? What is the expected impact on my field of activity? How can I ensure the safety of my employees? Who can I contact if I have questions?
The coronavirus epidemic and the measures taken to contain it can have serious consequences for the Belgian economy. The Belgian Chambers of Commerce are joining forces with the public authorities and are informing you about the current situation by making several web pages available to you.
The Chambers network
You can find answers to frequently asked questions about coronavirus as well as practical information on measures taken to help companies in Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels.
If these information pages do not answer a specific question, or if you would like to receive more specific details, please contact your chamber of commerce.
Public authorities
- FPS Economy has put online a specific webpage informing business over the best way to mitigate financial loss.
- FPS Finance’s general webpage on coronavirus is available here.
- The FPS Employment informs you about how to deal with the epidemic in the workplace, while the NEO informs you more specifically about temporary unemployment. They also offer a thorough FAQ list.
- Please also note that the offices of FPS Finance are currently only accessible by appointment and in the case of urgent matters. Most FPSs discourage people from coming to their offices in the current situation.
- If you would like more information on the impact of the current crisis on your cross-border activities, this page can help you.
General information
Finally, do not hesitate to visit https://www.info-coronavirus.be/en/ for more general information.
Hotlines
Various telephone numbers are available to answer your questions:
- In Brussels, you can contact BECI on 02/533.40.90.
- In Flanders, you can contact the Voka – KvK network on 0800/30.232.
- In Wallonia, the reference number for companies is 1890.
- The FPS Public Health can be reached on 0800/14.689.
- The FPS Economy can be reached on 0800/120.33.
New version of DigiChambers goes live
After more than two years of intensive preparation, the new version of DigiChambers went online on 3/02.
DigiChambers is the online application with which the Belgian Chambers of Commerce issue non-preferential certificates of origin on behalf of the FPS Economy. A certificate of origin confirms the place where the goods were produced and is requested upon import by the customs authorities of e.g. Russia, Turkey and the Gulf countries. In a globalized economy where production chains extend over several countries, determining the exact origin of a product is not always an easy task. However, chambers of commerce work closely with companies and know their production processes, which puts them in a good position to verify this origin. This is why, in most countries, the government has entrusted the issuing of certificates of origin to chambers of commerce. This is also the case in Belgium, where the chambers issue more than 400,000 certificates per year.
The first version of DigiChambers dates from 2009. At that time, the Belgian chambers were a forerunner in the history of digitization and were supported in this by the FPS Economy and recognized by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). DigiChambers has always succeeded in maintaining its leading position by constantly adding new functionalities and integrating with companies’ ERP systems. “However, it is not possible to modify an existing application indefinitely, which is why the time had come for a thorough overhaul of DigiChambers. We spent the necessary time, discussed with all parties involved and were guided by Deloitte in determining the requirements of DigiChambers 2.0 and in choosing the developer,” says Wouter Van Gulck, General Manager of the Federation of Belgian Chambers of Commerce, which coordinates the issuing of certificates of origin by the chambers and manages DigiChambers.
For the development of the new version of DigiChambers, D Soft, a software company based in Merelbeke, specialised in document management software and developer of the first version of DigiChambers, was again called upon. “The new version of DigiChambers is more intuitive and user-friendly,” says Christophe Coulie of the Federation, who closely followed the entire development process. “With a good API, we still want to facilitate communication with our customers’ systems and we have also designed DigiChambers in such a way that new technologies such as Blockchain can be integrated.”
DigiChambers is used every month by more than 1,800 companies. This represents almost 90% of the certificates of origin. The use of DigiChambers is voluntary for companies, but the ambition is indeed to move towards full digitisation.
Doing business in Luxembourg
Do you want to keep up to date with what is happening on the Luxembourg trade and investment front? Do you need resources to promote Luxembourg in your region?
Luxembourg Trade & Invest and the Luxembourg Chamber of commerce focus goals are to attract direct foreign investment to Luxembourg and to facilitate access to international markets for Luxembourg based companies. To reach these goals, they greatly value the support from the Chamber of Commerce network located around the world and they hope these resources will help you present Luxembourg to the world:
- An online resources page is a one-stop shop containing a wide array of information and promotional material, not only from Trade & Invest and the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce, but also from six other key players in the Luxembourg economy.
Material includes links to numerous websites, presentations, brochures, videos, flyers, publications and newsletters. - Naturally, Trade & Invest is active on social media (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter), where you can also follow StartupLuxembourg ((LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter), ), an initiative to promote Luxembourg’s dynamic start-up ecosystem and attract foreign innovation.
- You can also subscribe to the Luxembourg Trade and Invest’s monthly newsletter Crossroads and to the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce’s newsletter and magazine Merkur.
- Last but not least, Luxembourg Trade & Invest has just published its annual business magazine Happen, with a particular focus on data driven innovation, featuring interviews with Prime Minister Bettel and Vice Premier Minister and Minister of the Economy Etienne Schneider.
Do not hesitate to contact us for further information!
| Daniel Da Cruz | Trade & Invest |
| Edith Stein | Diana Rutledge | Luxembourg Chamber of commerce |
Digital ATA carnet for a Belgian company is a world premiere!
This week marked an important milestone in the digitization of the ATA carnet, an international customs document that allows goods to be temporarily imported. This document, which until now was only available on paper, has now been given a fully-fledged digital counterpart. A company from Leuven was the first to use a digital ATA carnet at the Swiss customs in Zurich.
An ATA carnet allows its holder to temporarily import products into a country without paying import duties and taxes. For companies that participate in trade fairs or take material with them abroad, an ATA carnet is an important simplification: no hassle at customs, no payment of guarantees. ATA carnets are issued by the chambers of commerce, and they also guarantee that the goods will be exported back to Belgium. This guarantee is part of a larger set of agreements between the World Customs Organisation and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in Paris. It is the latter who made the ATA carnet digitization possible. Instead of having to travel with a set of documents that has to be stamped each time by the customs services of the importing and exporting countries, all information is now available via an app that customers can load on their smartphones.
Developing this app has been a work of several years and its deployment is currently in a pilot phase. Belgium is one of the five countries participating in this pilot phase. “For the Belgian Chambers of commerce, joining this ICC project was an obvious choice”, says Christophe Coulie of the Federation of Belgian Chambers of Commerce who coordinates the project in Belgium. “After all, we are fully committed to digitization for the sake of greater security and user-friendliness. With a digital carnet, you can follow the entire journey of a carnet in real time and anticipate possible problems.”
The Belgian Chambers of commerce issue more than 1,700 ATA carnets each year. The follow-up of these carnets is a time-consuming activity for both customs and chambers. And with the United Kingdom leaving the EU and becoming a third country, the number of ATA carnets will increase considerably: an online application that facilitates this follow-up is certainly not a luxury.
