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8 November 2021
The Minister of Finance and Prime Minister Mark Brown announced that the wage subsidy and sole trader grants will continue until the end of January, in light of the border opening on January 13th. Further to this, an additional round of Business Grants will be made available to assist businesses in December in preparation for the border opening.
“While our borders have had to remain closed longer than we have hoped, the opening on January 13th provides some hope for our businesses and our economy. We recognize that the return of visitors will not be instantaneous and this requires planning and effort by our private sector, so we are supporting that through to the end of January.”
In confirming that support will continue until the border is open, Prime Minister Brown provided greater certainty for local tourism businesses as they begin to gear-up for January 13.
“Since the border closed in August, we have provided close to $30 million in estimated support for our private sector, and if we were to end these too soon that investment would be at risk. Along with our health and immigration authorities, I am confident visitors will return safely and these final months of support will allow businesses to be ready to take advantage of those opportunities.”
Our economic modelling shows reasons to be optimistic about our future, but in the short-term that future relies strongly on having visitors safely back to our shores says PM Brown. This is key to maintaining debt at manageable levels and not over-burdening our children in the future.
“The wage subsidy and associated measures have kept our people employed and provideda level of income that would not have been available otherwise, and our government is very proud of that fact. The final two months of this support will get us through to a successful revival in the economic recovery, and is the appropriate time for these measures to finish and keep our fiscal situation manageable.”
Factsheets with further information on each of the funding initiatives are available below:
Business Grant Reinstatement Fact Sheet - December 2021
Sole Trader Cash Grant Fact Sheet - December 2021 & January 2022
Wage Subsidy Reinstatement Fact Sheet - December 2021 & January 2022
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