NZ programme offering help

A NEW Zealand government programme is offering up to 100 per cent subsidy on business advice to the private sector in PNG and the Pacific.
This is to mitigate the impacts of Covid-19 on businesses.
Business Link Pacific (BLP), through its partners, is supporting the private sector in the Pacific islands to address Covid-19 challenges and prepare for the future.
It said in a statement that the subsidy was to assist small and medium-sized enterprises.
The subsidy covers up to 100 per cent of services through BLP-approved advisers focusing on services that support business continuity, contingency planning, access to available financial packages, refinancing and renegotiating loans and new working setups such as IT systems, access to communications platforms and cloud-based software.
The subsidy package would cover services for up to NZ$5,000 (K16,750) per SME.
Further support would be considered on a case-by-case approach. BLP advisers can provide information on available support packages from national and international governments, identify weaknesses and strengths in businesses, establish new roadmaps, help with innovation, and if necessary, reinvent products and services.
BLP approved advisers have access to online, quick and easy to use tools to identify business gaps, such as the business continuity planner.
The Covid-19 subsidy focuses on:

• HR impacts on operations– immediate term health and safety emergency planning; workplace safety; work-from-home strategies; sick-leave and business continuity and remote communications; flexible arrangements, austerity measures, temporary staffing;
• Business contingency and business continuity planning – mitigation of business interruptions and suspension; off-site relocations’ risk management strategies, insurance, data security and alternative business income and diversification;
• Financial planning – cash-flow management; renegotiating finance and loans; long-term financial impact planning; taxation, applying for national governments’ or international relief programmes and funding;
• Communications and marketing – crisis communications, business interruptions and customer engagement; and,
• Business coaching – online free consultations on continuity planning, adaptation and mitigation in the face of Covid-19.