Dear Reader,

Spring sees Slovakia reopening!

It is wonderful to see terraces, shops, hairdressers and swimming pools among other facilities opening across Slovakia. Events are allowed for up to six people. And children are back at school. (It was a challenge to find school clothes that fitted my children after almost 6 months of home schooling.)

Clearly, we have to stay vigilant, but for the first time in a long while, it finally feels like there is hope on the horizon.

Over in the UK, the success of the vaccine rollout means the UK government is considering lifting its travel ban in the second half of May, and even hopes to remove all legal limits on social contact after 21 June.

Both in the UK and here in Slovakia, the focus can finally turn to recovery and resilience plans. And this will provide long overdue support and opportunities for businesses, who will be at the heart of our economic recovery.

On 29 April Slovakia submitted its official recovery and resilience plan to the European Commission. The plan sets out the reforms and public investment projects that Slovakia plans to implement with the support of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). Slovakia has requested a total of €6.6 billion in grants under the RRF.

The Slovak plan is structured around five key policy priorities; green economy, education, R&D and innovation, health, and public administration/digitalisation. It includes measures supporting green investments, particularly in renewables, transport and buildings, healthcare, schooling and the digitalisation of public administration. These are all areas where our members are leading the way.

And despite the lockdown, we've all been finding innovative ways to connect and adapt to the needs and behaviors of our customers. In April, we had another excellent joint event within the ChamCham community and KPMG, "A new era of costumer experience". Over the past year, the customer experience has undergone a significant change, so this was a great opportunity to get ahead and hear from CX experts on how trends have been influenced by the pandemic. At the same time, in a discussion with selected brands: KPMG, Ikea, Martinus and Zásielkovňa, we learned about their approach to customer experience and why they are in the TOP 50 most popular brands in Slovakia. But if you missed the event, don't worry as you can watch a recording here. And there are more exciting events coming up in the wider business community, including the Slovak Matchmaking Fair 2021 ONLINE in May, the BCC Annual Global Conference and our AGM in June.

So its an exciting time and there is lots to look forward to, with lots of opportunities to support each other as we reignite our businesses. It is a unique opportunity, not just to return to "business as normal", but to "build back better", and join the green industrial revolution to ensure our recovery is sustainable.

Good luck and I look forward to seeing you at an event (for six people) soon!

Take care and kind regards,

Hajni

The seven members (UK, USA, Canada, Japan, Germany, France and Italy, plus the EU) are all bound by shared values as open, democratic and outward-looking societies.

 

In past years the G7 has taken action to strengthen the global economy and combat tax evasion, save 27 million lives from AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, and supported the education of millions of children in the poorest countries. In 2015 its members led the way in helping secure the historic Paris Climate Agreement to limit global emissions.

We are in unprecedented times. The Prime Minister will use the first in-person G7 Summit in almost two years to ask leaders to seize the opportunity to fight and build back better from coronavirus, uniting to make the future fairer, greener and more prosperous.