COVID-19 was a timely wake-up call. On a human level, we learnt to appreciate the little things that make life beautiful. Social distancing has wiped out the beauty of our proximity which makes life on this island so unique and socially fulfilling: the visits to grandparents, the working lunches, the weekend timeouts in Gozo, the children’s’ sports activities and the family walks.
However, COVID-19 has also triggered a disruptive wave on multiple policy domains with the primary consequence of the pandemic’s escalation being the weakening of our economy. This has exposed a series of fundamental economic flaws, misconceptions of financial robustness and the downright strategic short-sightedness of building an economy on the back of consumption and construction volumes rather than liveability and sustainability.
Indeed this is an even louder wake-up call that our economic model needs to be radically reinvented to make it resilient for such major shifts.
This crisis is neither localised nor contained to a particular industry or region but is a global one fuelled by fear of real or perceived health threats which in turn affects global consumer behaviour, hence re-shaping the driving factors of most of our standing economic pillars.
As we start coming to terms with the sprawling boundaries of the economic impact, leading economists speak of the ‘new normal’ while public health experts warn that the resurgence of the virus could be even more devastating than the pandemic onslaught we are experiencing.
Irrespective of the final scenario the impact on local business will be massive
Make no mistake, irrespective of the final scenario, the impact on local business will be massive. Naturally, the longer the hiatus, the more distressing the effects. Failing and crashing businesses leave a reverberation of hardship, primarily among the employees made redundant and their families.
In this time of global uncertainty and local hardship, each and every one of us politicians and leaders across civil society has a crucial and moral obligation to do his and her level best to ensure we come out of this crisis as a stronger society and an economy capable to bounce back.
This is why in one of the first parliamentary sittings after the crisis started looming in neighboring countries we suggested to the government that we should put aside political differences and unite in a converged national effort, rowing in the same boat in the same direction. Unfortunately, this appeal was flatly turned down, on the spot.
With the complex scenario on the horizon, we need to ensure that in the days, weeks and months after the crisis subsides, thousands of households would still have their livelihood protected, enabling them to get back on track.
This is why despite our appeal for convergence being flatly turned down, we still used our platforms to voice the concerns of the people and publicly put forward proposals which could make the lives of our citizens and those living in Malta better.
This is why we keep on appealing to the government to heed our advice on extending the employment aid of €800 per month per employee to all those enterprises that have been materially impacted by the COVID-19 crisis.
The government must act now and make this baseline support available to all sizes of businesses from the micro self-employed to the large manufacturing operations.
Unemployment benefits are vital to help those impacted but will only serve as short-term cushions as they do not provide for the same quality of life and existing living income the employees and their families have been accustomed to.
It is therefore incumbent on the state to do whatever it takes to help save these businesses and safeguard the jobs of their employees.
A lost job is an endangered livelihood and a large dose of hardship for the employees’ families, which will come at a heftier social and economic price, any time soon.
Claudio Grech, PN spokesperson on the economy