Message from the top: Rizwan Sajan, founder and chairperson, Danube Group

We all know that desperate times call for desperate measures and every organisation is putting in its best efforts to reduce the impact of Covid-19 on business loss and productivity.

As a company, following the guidelines laid down by the government to mitigate the spread of coronavirus, we allowed 90 per cent of our employees to work from home, resorting to Microsoft Teams, video conferencing tools, VPNs and other IT tools designed to deliver outstanding results, leaving our productivity intact.

But we require extreme measures – now more than ever – to boost business confidence among investors and entrepreneurs.

Initiatives such as the whopping stimulus packages worth Dhs126.5bn announced by the UAE government, promising to give financial aid to multiple sectors across the country, will make sure that almost all of the businesses continue operating without a problem.

I feel that the UAE government will do everything that is required to help businesses sustain themselves through these tough times, and worries about the contamination are being countered by the government with a nationwide disinfection drive across the country.

Other than these things, I urge every industry, company and individual to do whatever they can to contribute to the efforts being made to stop this virus because our collective efforts have the potential to help us sail through everything in life.

There have been multiple instances of economic crises that have wreaked havoc before, but we forged through them together, with every nation and company doing whatever it could to help out one another.

So I believe this time is going to be no different than the previous ones and we will see a glimmer of hope soon because there is always light after darkness.