Tegucigalpa.
He private sector of Honduras is in a “state of disaster” as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, already causing 3,354 deaths and 134,111 infections, and the effects of tropical storms Eta and Iota, so it rejects the idea of a new quarantine to stop the uncontrolled advance of the disease.
“The private company is in a state of disaster, we have ten months of incarceration and are running (working) on half steam due to COVID-19 and in November we were hit by two tropical storms,” said the Chairman of the Board in an interview with Efe . Honduran private company (Cohep), Juan Carlos Sikaffy.
Natural phenomena have particularly affected the Sula Valley, in the Caribbean department of Cortés, which extends to part of neighboring Yoro (north), a region that produces 45% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). left “very serious consequences” for Honduras, he said.
Eight in 10 Hondurans have “serious problems accessing their resources”, so they live in “precarious conditions”, which he says worries private companies.
90% of Honduras’ corporate structure is made up of micro and small businesses, one of the sectors most affected by the coronavirus and storms Eta and Iota, and its “major limitations” have not allowed its reactivation, he added.
New quarantine
Sikaffy rejected the idea of imposing a new quarantine in Honduras, a move the authorities have taken in light of the increase in the number of covid-19 cases in the country.
A quarantine is ‘out of context, we have to take care of ourselves, each of us takes responsibility’, emphasized the businessman, who indicated that the Lockdown “It will bring back many more poor people” to the country, where informality has increased.
“There are people who are going to work today, eat today or tomorrow, if that source of income is taken away, it will throw more people into poverty, that is very serious, we can achieve unprecedented social decomposition in the country,” stressed. he.
Honduras is going through a “turning point” and at this point there is “a great opportunity to rebuild the country” as multilateral organizations have offered funding, so the government and businessmen need to formulate projects that will have a “greater impact” on the country. population, he explained.
Honduras, a country of 9.3 million inhabitants, has 134,111 cases of covid-19 and 3,354 deaths, and since late December last year, there has been a resurgence in the pandemic pushing the health system to its limits.
Join forces
Virtually all sectors of the economy were closed last March, applying mechanisms such as the suspension of contracts, and the most essential sectors were allowed to open at the end of July.
However, the economic recovery is slow, so Sikaffy is demanding that the government “join forces” with all sectors to “build the country together”.
The main challenge facing private companies in Honduras is restoring and rebuilding what was devastated by storms Eta and Iota last November, and economic reactivation, he warned.
Reactivating the weak Honduran economy means that “companies must provide credit terms and guarantee funds that the government must provide to recover,” he explained, inviting businessmen to reinvent themselves to resume operations.
The crisis alleged by employers has been patented in the unemployment rates of one million people in the formal sector and more than 1.5 million people with “serious income problems” in the informal sector.
The damage they left behind And it is Iota according to a report by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Cepal), quoted by the businessman, they correspond to about 46,000 million lempiras (1,896 million dollars).
He noted that the Covid-19 pandemic caused the Honduran economy and it has caused losses of at least 18% of GDP, equivalent to 120,000 million lempiras (4,946 million dollars).
Reconstruction plan
He said the National Reconstruction Plan announced by the Honduran government should give priority to attacking “the human tragedy, restoring what was destroyed by the storms and reactivating the economy”.
For this, Honduras must attract foreign investment, but the country must “go down a road of reconstruction so as not to be so vulnerable to climate change,” Sikaffy said.
The government must also guarantee foreign investors “security, clear rules and strong institutions, so that they can be sure that their investments are” safe in the country. “
The country must also fight corruption, a problem that “is endemic to the country to be exterminated, we cannot stand another second with corruption issues,” stressed the president of the United States. Cohep, the main management of Honduras.
“Corruption must be attacked from the root,” said Sikaffy, who also said that the main problem with this scourge is that “there is impunity.”
The company director also demanded that health authorities “do everything they can to prevent the vaccine COVID-19) as soon as possible”.
The Honduran Social Security Institute (IHSS) of Honduras has announced the purchase of 1.4 million doses of covid-19 vaccines from pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, for which Cohep has provided a $ 3.4 million guarantee.