Refine
Year of publication
- 2020 (21) (remove)
Document Type
- Study Thesis (13)
- Contribution to a Periodical (3)
- Working Paper (2)
- Part of a Book (1)
- Article (unreviewed) (1)
- Report (1)
Keywords
- COVID-19 (21) (remove)
Institute
Open Access
- Open Access (18)
- Closed Access (3)
Supporting the COVID-19 response in Asia and the Pacific—The role of the Asian Development Bank.
(2020)
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all countries of the Asia Pacific region over the last few months with far reaching economic, health and social consequences. To counter the impact, governments have accelerated their health spending and announced large macroeconomic stabilization and stimulus policy packages. As with past disasters and crises in the region, the Asian Development Bank has reacted with a number of targeted support interventions since the very early stages of the outbreak. In mid- April 2020, the Bank then put forward a comprehensive COVID-19 Response Package totalling $20 billion to support its member countries which rests on four pillars.
The last few months have proven that multilateral development banks like the Asian Development Bank have the ability to respond quickly and to mobilize significant resources for a global emergency like COVID-19. Whilst this financial supported is urgently needed at this point, attention will need to be paid on how debt sustainability for low- and middle-income countries can be ensured in the coming years. Given the unprecedented scale of and uncertainty around the COVID-19 pandemic, it may offer a window of opportunity to redesign the way developmental finance is coordinated and the way it is delivered. This also includes a chance to “build back better” and to focus on a sustainable, resilient and green recovery.
If the current situation could be described in one word, it would be ‘uncertainty’. In times of global crisis, it is important to support the economy to keep businesses alive. Therefore, this paper shows the Finnish government measures and how exporters can benefit from them. Looking in particular at the maritime sector, the research pointed out that there were not that many specific measures for exporters and shipbuilders. This essay detected that the provided measures are suitable for the needs of the affected companies and are an effective instrument by the government to stabilise the industry. This is proved by the number of companies taking advantage of these loans, grants and guarantees. Due to the already mentioned uncertainty, it remains unclear how measures have to be adjusted in the future.
Africa was the last region to witness significant spread of the COVID-19. Nonetheless, it was expected that the continent would be hardest hit due to the fragility of its health and social infrastructure as well as the vulnerability of its economies. While the rates of infection and death were initially relatively low and contained economically, the continent was hard hit early on. Cuts in credit and trade services by international banks, along with a decline in export earnings, tourism receipts, and inward remittances, have severely constrained the ability of African countries to finance imports of essential goods and to service maturing debt obligations.
However, Africa has over time created mechanisms and institutions to help cushion its economies from the adverse consequences of global shocks. Among these institutions is Afreximbank, which emerged out of the debt crisis of the 1980s. This paper presents an overview of the Bank’s support to African countries in dealing with two major derivatives of the COVID-19 pandemic: the trade finance challenges resulting from cuts in international financial flows to the continent, and the health consequences of the pandemic.
Unter dem Deckmantel der Covid-19-Pandemie werden soziale Einrichtungen wie Bildungseinrichtungen oder das Gesundheitssystem systematisch auf Digitalisierung getrimmt. Schon Grundschulkinder werden an die Arbeit am Display gewöhnt und Schulen mit Geldern aus dem Digitalpakt Schule technisch aufgerüstet. Lernsoftware, Schulcloud und Learning Analytics erlauben die Verdatung von Schülerbiographien. Digitale Endgeräte als Leihgabe für Schülerinnen und Schüler bereiten den Fernunterricht für die Zeit nach der Pandemie vor. Auf der Strecke bleiben dabei möglicherweise nicht nur Grundrechte, Privatsphäre und letztlich die Autonomie des Menschen, sondern auch das notwendige Vertrauen in politische Entscheidungen, wenn etwa die Digitalisierung zunehmend aller Lebensbereiche gar nicht mehr hinterfragt wird. Dabei reichen bereits vier Forderungen zur IT-Entwicklung, um demokratisch legitimierte Alternativen von Softwarelösungen zu entwickeln, wie der Streit um die Corona-App gezeigt hat.
Der Artikel beschreibt die Herausforderungen für die Kommunikation in Ganztagsschulen im Jahr 2020 als es notwendig war bei einer sehr unbeständigen Organisations- und Kommunikationslage von Seiten der Schulverwaltungen einen Unterrichts- und Ganztagsbetrieb zu organisieren und gegenüber den wesentlichen Stakeholdern zu kommunizieren.
While prospect of tracking mobile devices' users is widely discussed all over European countries to counteract COVID-19 propagation, we propose a Bloom filter based construction providing users' location privacy and preventing mass surveillance.
We apply a solution based on Bloom filters data structure that allows a third party, a government agency, to perform some privacy-preserving set relations on a mobile telco's access logfile.
By computing set relations, the government agency, given the knowledge of two identified persons, has an instrument that provides a (possible) infection chain from the initial to the final infected user no matter at which location on a worldwide scale they are.
The benefit of our approach is that intermediate possible infected users can be identified and subsequently contacted by the agency. With such approach, we state that solely identities of possible infected users will be revealed and location privacy of others will be preserved. To this extent, it meets General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)requirements in this area.
This seminar paper examines government measures to support export-oriented companies in Belgium. After a short overview of the Belgian economy and the impact of the Covid-19 crisis, the paper introduces the available government measures for exporters. In particular, the role of Credendo as a Belgian export-credit insurance company will be discussed, and its measures will be examined in more detail. In addition, federal measures of the Belgian government will be identified, and a summary of the most important regional measures will be provided. The entirety of government measures available to export-oriented companies will be reviewed and options for the future activities of export-oriented companies will be pointed out.
The COVID-19 pandemic has the global economy under control. This paper deals with the economic consequences in Germany and shows the measures taken by the German government to support especially small and medium-sized export companies. The structure of the German economy and foreign trade promotion are explained as a basis. After considering the government's support measures, an evaluation of country comparisons shows that there is still potential for further measures, especially in direct lending and debt moratorium. The analysis is based on quantitative data from surveys and qualitative results from interviews with relevant ministries and market participants as well as recent publications.
The coronavirus affects the strongly export-oriented Swiss economy in a situation where political and economic developments are already making the cross-border exchange of goods and services difficult. For this reason, the question arises of how Switzerland can maintain or strengthen its position in global competition in the export business during an unprecedented period of crisis such as the current one.
In order to find an answer to this question, this paper critically examines the existing government support measures for Swiss exporters in times of COVID-19. The fact that Switzerland has so far not taken any specific support measures for exporters raises the actual research question of whether there is a specific necessity and demand for a special export promotion. To answer this research question, various expert opinions are compared and overall conclusions are drawn. By rapidly introducing and adapting the already existing instruments – liquidity assistance and an expansion of short-time work benefits – the federal government was able to ensure the survival of many companies. According to the authors of this paper, this focus of government support in times of crisis is just right for a small national economy in the short term and therefore preferable to a specific support of exporters. Nevertheless, given the high relative importance of foreign trade for Switzerland’s overall economic performance, there can be no recovery of national economy without a recovery of foreign trade.
This paper gives an overview of the impact that the corona pandemic has on the export industry in Canada and analyzes the different Canadian government measures for exporters. In addition, the measures are subsequently evaluated in order to identify if the support measures can help Canadian exporters to overcome the crisis. The basis of this paper are semi-structured expert interviews with experts from the financial sector, scientific literature and studies. The results have shown that the COVID-19 pandemic has a major impact on Canada’s export economy and it’s GDP. Trade is only possible to a limited extent, as many borders are closed. The Canadian government reacted with an economic response plan to support Canadian individuals and businesses. This paper depicts and assesses the most eligible measures for export companies.
The aim of this essay is to analyse and evaluate the Italian government measures for exporters in response to COVID-19. The unexpected, rapid and hardly predictable consequences of the pandemic paralyzed the entire globe. For a long time, Italy was the epicentre of the virus, which caused severe damage in the Italian export economy dropping temporarily more than 40%. The Italian government reacted exemplary fast and took multiple countermeasures of high extent especially through the Italian export credit agency SACE. On the one hand, the internationally compared broad structure of SACE was a huge advantage, which allowed to release quickly numerous measures. On the other hand, there is room for improvement regarding the accessibility of measure-related information, which has been partially only available in Italian. Furthermore, there is a remarkable risk resulting from the combination of the high monetary effort to enable the numerous measures, the difficult financial situation of the Italian government and the unpredictability of the COVID-19 consequences.
This essay is about Estonia’s measures to help its exporters responding to COVID-19. The purpose is to analyse the companies’ need for help measures and the governmental objectives behind the measures and finally to analyse the possible effects. We used the two latest surveys dealing with the entrepreneurship situation and conducted two inter-views with governmental representatives exposing their objectives. The outcomes show that more than half of Estonian companies are asking for governmental help mainly as a consequence of a drop of demand. Limiting the increase of unemployment and bankrupt-cies as well as strengthening the economic recovery were identified as the main govern-mental objectives while restraining fiscal costs is a subordinated objective but becomes more important the more money will be spent. The help measures offered by KredEx are in line with these objectives. After the crisis the implications of the established measures should be analysed so that others can learn from the Estonian Government’s approach.
British Government long-term Measures for Exporters in the Manufacturing Sector in Times of COVID-19
(2020)
The authors of this paper have addressed the question of what measures have been taken by the British government to support exporters in the manufacturing sector in the era of COVID-19. A classification of the manufacturing export industry in the British economy as a whole and the impending economic impact of COVID-19 were also examined. It should be noted that the United Kingdom is facing major structural changes as a result of the Corona pandemic and its withdrawal from the European Union, which are examined more in detail in this paper. The UKEF, in cooperation with other institutions, provides a number of finance facilities for exporters already before Corona crisis. The access to get this support has been facilitated for the COVID-19 affected exporters, but no additional measures were made available.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been spreading rapidly across the globe and has seriously affected global trade. In order to reduce the pandemic’s impact on their economy, the French government released a support plan referring to the COVID-19 crisis. Since mid-tier companies play a leading role in France’s export, this paper deals with the measures taken by the French government to support especially French mid-tier export companies. Based on empirical literature and recent publications, the research question is analyzed by conducting interviews with experts, such as market participants, governmental institutions and an expert for trade and innovation. As a result of the research, the emergency measures taken by the French government, such as the CAP Francexport reinsurance scheme, the extension of cover for export guarantees, additional information and assistance, and the deferral of tax and social security contributions have mitigated the effects at first instance.
This essay deals with the Spanish economy and especially with the Spanish governmental measures for SME exporters in times of COVID-19. The focus was set on SMEs, as they are an essential part of trade for the government and are particularly affected by the pandemic. Since the financial crisis, the Spanish economy has become highly diversified, with a greater focus on exports. Competitiveness, productivity and efficiency have increased significantly. The Spanish government measures largely affect the areas liquidity and financing, taxes and protection of the employment. One of the most important measures is the 100-billion-euro credit line and the policies on unemployment. The Spanish government is dependent on further aid packages and is criticized for the measures.
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an economic downturn in the Slovak Republic. To bridge corporate liquidity problems the Slovakian Government has introduced several support measures. The investigation discusses the effectiveness of the measures imposed. Based on theoretical foundations, the research question is empirically examined by using a qualitative expert survey. As the automotive industry plays a leading role in Slovakia, the research conducted is oriented towards the financing phases, a typical automotive exporter is undergoing. As a result of the research, bridging loans and government grants were identified as the most important measures. Additionally, tendencies towards political recommendations for action were identified. The research explored, that the Slovakian Government should focus on meeting the short-term liquidity needs, boosting exports and promoting innovation as well as considering a support package for the automotive industry.
The research paper provides important findings about the development, difficulties and perception of the support measures for exporters introduced by the Austrian government in times of COVID-19 crisis. Based on a literature review using secondary data, eight qualitative interviews were conducted with experts from the Austrian economy and government, among them the Austrian ECA ‘Oesterreichische Kontrollbank AG’. To balance the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Austrian economy, a broad coverage with financing instruments for a wide range of target groups was established. Although the support measures have been well received by companies, insolvencies cannot completely be prevented. Nevertheless, the actual effects are not yet predictable and need to be assessed in further research at a later point in time.