OSTRAVA IS LAUNCHING ANOTHER PROGRAMME TO SUPPORT LOCAL BUSINESSES

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS for financial donations up to 100 000 CZK including detailed information can be found HERE on the City's website.

APPLICATIONS for the financial donation are submitted VIA A WEB FORM HERE (in Czech)

At Ostrava Expat Centre they will be happy to help you fill out the application. You can contact them at info@ostravaexpat.eu, via Messenger on the Facebook page, or in person during opening hours at Českobratrská street 1888/14.

Applicants/Conditions

Following on from a series of previous measures that were taken to assist local small businesses, the City of Ostrava is now offering businesses the opportunity to apply for a financial donation of up to 100 000 CZK. Eligible businesses must operate in Ostrava (they must have business premises – "provozovna" – in the city) or they must have their registered address in Ostrava and carry out the majority of their business activities in the city. Eligible applicants must have an annual income not exceeding 18 million CZK, and they must have been prohibited from doing business due to the government's emergency measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Applications can be submitted between 1 May and 13 May. Applications adjudged to be complete will be approved at the next session of the City Assembly, which is planned for 20 May. The financial donations will then be sent to the businesses' bank accounts as soon as possible.

The web form was jointly developed (free of charge) by IT experts from TietoEVRY and Ovanet. The developers have created an easy-to-understand, user-friendly interface whose main goal is to make the application process as simple as possible. The IT solution will also help City officials to process and evaluate the individual applications as efficiently as possible. The form is based on the Wordpress platform and uses a number of automated processes which will speed up the whole application process and eliminate unnecessary errors. An example of such a process is the automatic retrieval of all relevant information about the applicant from various official registers.

Petr Lukasík, Director of TietoEVRY Czech, commented:

"We are delighted to be working with the City of Ostrava, and we appreciate the opportunity to help the local community. We feel a strong connection to the region where we are based, and we are keen to play our part in helping the whole community to get through this difficult time together – whether it's by developing this web form for the City or via our distance learning tools which are helping students and teachers."

The maximum financial donation

The maximum financial donation available to business-owners depends on their annual income and the supporting documentation they provide:

• 40 000 CZK is available if your annual income is up to 6 million CZK (or over 6 million CZK but you do not present your tax return as part of your application)
• 70 000 CZK is available if your annual income is over 6 million CZK (up to 12 million CZK) and you present your 2019 or 2018 tax return as part of your application
• 100 000 CZK is available if your annual income is over 12 million CZK (up to 18 million CZK) and you present your 2019 or 2018 tax return as part of your application

Any emergency financial aid already received from the (up to 20 000 CZK) City will be deducted from the above sums.

Ostrava's Mayor Tomáš Macura explained the City's reasons for launching this programme:

"Businesses – especially small businesses – are the key motor of the economy, and they represent a source of diversity and stability for our city. To prosper, a city needs its businesses – and now our businesses need rapid and effective help from us. Our assistance programmes are now being implemented on the level of the individual municipal districts, with the participation of private companies such as Residomo. We have also been contacted by other towns and cities that have taken inspiration from our approach. Ostrava is in very good economic health, which is why we've not needed to wait for state-level intervention in order to start taking tangible steps that will help the city remain economically stable during the upcoming period. These steps include not only our determination to continue with our key strategic investments, but also our support programmes for local businesses."

 

Series of measures to support small businesses

Ostrava has prepared a series of measures designed to support small businesses: it has enabled them to delay rent payments in City-owned premises for up to 3 months (rent postponement); it has partially or completely waived rent payments (rent waivers); it has postponed the deadline for removing inappropriate advertising ("advertising smog") from business premises; it has launched a programme (now ended) offering rapid emergency financial aid up to 20 000 CZK; and now a major new programme offering financial donations up to 100 000 CZK to businesses impacted by the government's emergency measures.

Deputy Mayor Zuzana Bajgarová, whose area of responsibility covers City investment policy, gave more details:

 "We received numerous pleasant e-mails from applicants to our first business support programme, giving very positive feedback. We're very grateful for that feedback – it shows us that the programme was useful, and it has helped us to set the parameters for our next support programme, which offers financial donations up to 10 000 CZK." The City is also currently discussing possible new measures including temporarily waiving local taxes for accommodation and the use of public spaces by businesses – which would make life easier for hotels, restaurants and cafés.

The City is also focusing on the non-profit sector, and it is currently drawing up a programme to support cultural, educational, sporting and other non-profit organizations. This programme will exist alongside the City's standard subsidy and grant programmes for the non-profit sector. The City Council plans to announce this new programme soon.

FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAMMES FOR BUSINESS – AN OVERVIEW

Financial donations up to 100 000 CZK
Eligible applicants are businesses operating in Ostrava (they must have business premises – "provozovna" – in the city, or they must have their registered address in Ostrava and carry out the majority of their business activities in the city). Eligible applicants must have an annual income not exceeding 18 million CZK, and must have been prohibited from doing business due to the government's emergency measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The call for applications, including detailed information, can be found HERE. Applications for the financial donation are submitted via a web form HERE. The next session of the City Assembly will decide whether to open a new round of applications; the date will be announced at www.ostrava.cz.

Emergency financial aid up to 20 000 CZK
Eligible applicants were small businesses with an annual turnover of up to 6 million CZK that operate in Ostrava (i.e. have business premises – "provozovna" – in the city). The last applications were accepted on 30 April and have been evaluated during this week. Current data on this programme (the number of business supported to date, the total funds approved by the City Council, and the structure of the recipients by type of activity) can be viewed online via the "aid map" HERE.

Rent waivers
Businesses operating in premises owned directly by the City of Ostrava (not administered by the municipal districts) can apply for a partial or complete waiver (cancellation) of rent payments for the period during which the premises were closed due to the government's emergency measures. Detailed information and the application form can be found HERE.  

Rent postponement
The deadlines of rent payments for March and April are automatically postponed for 3 months; this applies to all businesses which as of 13 March 2020 were operating in premises owned directly by the City of Ostrava (not administered by the municipal districts). Information HERE.

Advertising smog regulation – postponement of the deadline by 1 year
As part of the City's regulation of "advertising smog" (part of the Ostrava 360° project), the deadline for removing inappropriate advertising from business premises will be postponed by a year. The same postponement also applies to the deadline for submitting applications for subsidies to help with the implementation of the new regulation. More information is available at www.ostrava.cz/pomoc-podnikatelum and www.ostrava360.cz.