The COVID-19 pandemic has brought 90-percent of the Czech Republic’s automobile industry to a standstill and put 150,000 jobs at risk as well as much as 8 percent of the national GDP. Those are the numbers of the Automobile Industry Association (AutoSAP), which is now calling for the government to broaden its support of corporate liquidity and employment support. “It’s also necessary now to work on a long-term plan aimed at freeing up the economy and supporting the resumption of production and of markets,” said AutoSAP president Bohdan Wojnar on Czech Television. He called on the Czech government to open the country’s borders for visits from key members of the management, ownership and experts from major industrial producers. Wojnar also believes the government should take steps to restart both the local market but also to help coordinate the a renewal of the internal EU markets in order to limit the extent of the economic damage.
