It has been a tumultuous few weeks. The threat of a virtually unknown disease and the anxiety arising from this unprecedented fear has taken its emotional toll on most of us. Fear for the wellbeing of our most vulnerable, our senior citizens, our children and loved ones has upended life, at least as we have known it since the end of the second world war and which very few can today claim they have experienced first-hand.
As a government, this posed a huge challenge; a race against time to provide valuable peace of mind for our citizens during such extraordinary and turbulent times. This is what we have tried, and I might add, have succeeded in doing since day one; instil a valuable measure of optimism in our citizens during such an uncertain time in our history. Besides the numerous measures we have launched to ensure this, as well as the gradual easing of restrictions, the past week has been an important one in terms of instilling both psychological and economic serenity which we believe is essential right now.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been the government’s baptism of fire, wherein with the continuous cooperation of all relevant stakeholders we have managed to brave the storm and guide the country to less turbulent waters. With great diligence we have sustained our workers and our businesses, cushioning the negative impact of the pandemic which has brought much wealthier, much larger economies to their knees.
In our bid to safeguard our citizens, we have also ensured that no abuse be tolerated. Just this week we introduced price capping as well as a decrease of VAT on essential PPE; face masks and face shields. .
Such decisions and the appropriate financing for our workforce and businesses are wholly needed to ensure our survival in the short term, but again, an intelligent, gradual restart strategy is what will ultimately instil hope for a brighter, wealthier future. Therefore, while a glowing report, emanating from Columbia University ranking Malta as first in the world with the most generous aid package to combat the impact of COVID-19 is highly encouraging, our future goal is to fulfil the European Commission’s prediction for our country, which states that Malta’s GDP, given the current circumstances should contract by 5.8% but is ultimately expected to rebound by 6% in 2021.
It is therefore quite heartening to note that while we are experiencing a measure of hardship at the moment, good times will return as well. We know that our country has throughout its history, prevailed time and again, and this time should be no different. Nevertheless, as a government, our pledge is that we will remain the main pillar of support for our people, throughout all strata of our society and we will continue to implement our assistance strategies, including the provision of supplements and aid measures to our workers and businesses until as a country we are back on our feet.
Ultimately, the COVID-19 threat has proved that, if nothing else, in extraordinary times we are all capable of coming together and working towards the common good. I augur that for a more promising, more successful future, as a nation we continue to stand shoulder to shoulder and draw on the valuable lessons learnt during this complex time.
Silvio Schembri is Minister of the Economy