Nearly 70 percent of businesses in Dubai expect to close within the next six months due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a survey by the Dubai Chamber of Commerce.
The survey released on Thursday said that more than 90 percent of the companies said they registered a decrease in sales and turnover in Q1 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The economic downturn due to the global coronavirus crisis has mainly impacted small and medium-sized companies.
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All companies in the tourism and travel sector, and more than half of the companies in real estate, hotels, and restaurants, and in wholesale and retail said they expected a decline in sales and turnover by more than 75 percent in the second quarter of this year compared to the first.
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At least 48 percent of the surveyed companies said they had no ready plan to handle a global disaster but added that they took many measures to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on employees and operational continuity.
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The Dubai Chamber of Commerce listed the following as policy recommendation in the coming period to mitigate the economic impact of COVID-19: Protection from Legal prosecution and action, relief from rent and rent associated cost, government fees and regulations support, increase liquidity and facilitate finance, relief from rent and rent associated cost.
The United Arab Emirates registered four more deaths on Thursday as a result of the COVID-19 coronavirus, according to health officials who added the country also detected 892 new cases of infections over the past 24 hours, raising the total to 26,898 so far.
