Read the full letter that we sent to Minister Alexander De Croo below.
We wrote an open letter to the Minister to thank the government for their support, and in the same time warn them for two risks of general aid: the bad debt tsunami, and investing in companies that stay/become relevant in the future.
The government has announced to support companies that had sufficient funds before the crisis. This seems right, but has one big danger when a crisis like this is so omnipresent: we might stop supporting a series of companies that all together are a substantial client of a sound company. The latter goes down – even with the support – with the first group.
When the government injects these large amounts of money into the economy, it needs to have some indication whether that money is spent on companies that will survive and be relevant in the future market. Corona is disrupting those markets, so companies might first have to prove that they have been thinking forward, before being supported.