Prague - The Czech Confederation of Industry on Wednesday 29 October called on the Czech government to take speedy and efficient steps to help Czech industries deal with the global financial crisis.

The confederation said in its statement the government should set the earliest possible date for euro adoption, reject the energy and climate package proposed by the EU and provide more substantial support to small and medium-sized businesses.

The Czech Chamber of Commerce has also come up with a list of requirements. The chamber wants the government to stabilise the crown's exchange rate to the euro and the dollar, cut interest rates, prevent uncontrollable growth of energy prices, continue with reforms, support export especially to non-EU countries and curb wage growth pressures in all sectors.

"In the coming days and weeks we will present individual proposals at meetings with involved representatives, including government officials. We will try to make sure that as many of our proposals as possible will be implemented," said chamber president Petr Kužel.

"Although domestic banks and economy as a whole are to a large extent stabilized and sufficiently strong, we are rather concerned about the impacts of the global economic crisis on the Czech business environment," the chamber said in its statement.

The chamber expects that the global crunch will have ramifications in all sectors of the Czech economy. "We feel that the most endangered are the textile and glass industries, the automotive industry, tourism and other sectors."