Christchurch shops 'open for business'

Canterbury is "open for business" despite Saturday's 7.1 magnitude earthquake and aftershocks, the Canterbury Employers' Chamber of Commerce says.

Chief executive Peter Townsend said many Christchurch businesses were already trading onsite or remotely.

"Canterbury is in good spirit. Cantabrians are banding together to support each other and get back into business," he said.

The Chamber of Commerce and the Canterbury Development Corporation (CDC) had jointly set up an Economic Recovery Group to help with Canterbury's recovery, he said.

The group was conducting a survey to find out the "immediate needs" of the business community.

Mr Townsend said initial survey results were "very positive".

"Our business community is telling us that they are still trading and most are able to pay staff. It's anticipated most businesses currently compromised will be up and running within a week," said Mr Townsend.

Survey spokesman Simon Worthington, of the CDC, said it had received 140 responses since it went online this morning.

Ninety-five percent of the businesses who responded were trading and 93 percent were able to pay staff. Four percent planned to pay staff using the Government's earthquake subsidy, he said.

Mr Worthington said the key issues facing local business were building damage and access, fragile staff, loss of customers and cash flow.

However survey respondents seemed "positive and resilient".

Sixty-five percent of respondents said the insurance process was working, but were worried about the time-frame for payouts, he said.

"Of those businesses not yet fully operational, 40 percent hope to be back trading within a week, with a further 26 percent hoping to be operational within a month."

- NZPA