If the epidemic of the acute respiratory disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) lasts for more than six months, it may cause up to 73.8 percent of the firms to go bankrupt, a recent survey finds.

Illustrative image (Source: VNA)

The findings of the survey, conducted with the participation of more than 1,200 firms from March 2-3, were recently released by the commission on the study on the private economic development under the advisory council on administrative procedure reform of the Prime Minister. Three quarters of the firms surveyed are of a small scale, each employing less than 100 workhands.

Up to 98.2 percent of the firms said they are undergoing negative impact of the epidemic, while only 9.2 percent said the impact would be light on them.

It is also noteworthy that 19 percent of the firms said they have found out any measure to sustain the negative impact, while 7.2 percent said they will actively search for new markets, 2.4 percent raise service quality, and 1.7 percent to take this time to retrain their workers.

The survey also finds that the firms totally support and highly value the measures taken by authorities in the fight against the epidemic to ensure safety for the people.

The firms raise three proposals to the government to help them ease the difficulties caused by the epidemic, namely working out exclusive preferential policies for firms heavily affected in terms of taxes, providing concessional loans and reducing loan interests.