There is no dearth of information on how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting Malta’s economy and the world at large, however concrete recommendations for both companies strategizing and Government enacting policy has been limited.

Newly launched Seed, a consultancy firm founded by local economist JP Fabri and tax specialist Nicky Gouder, have formed both short-term and long-term recommendations through their research publication ‘Agile. Perspectives on Malta’s economy post COVID-19.’

The report seeks to analyse the impact of COVID-19 while presenting several research-based recommendations and perspectives of, what it describes, Malta’s “new normal”.

It’s listed authors are JP Fabri (Founding Partner, economist), Dr Stephanie Fabri (economist and University of Malta lecturer with the Department of Management), Glenn Fenech (senior consultant at Seed, economist), Prof Vince Cassar (organisational psychologist, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Economics, Management and Accountancy at UoM) and Dr Johnathan Spiteri (economist, UoM lecturer at the Department of Insurance).

The report is complemented by consultations with 18 social partners, 20 business leaders, 15 expert contributions and an economic survey with 385 participants. In total, 38 interviews were conducted to inform the recommendations.

Each interview consisted of 45 minutes to one-hour one-to-one meetings. Contributors include local leading economist Maire Briguglio, Steve Agius, Prof Alan Deidun, Marisa Xuereb, Dr Sandro Debono, Prof Josann Cutajar, Dr George Vital Zammit, Dr GeGe Gatt, Herman Grech and Dr Antoine Grima, among others.

After considering the local context and digesting the interviews and consultations with a broad range of contributors, the team behind Seed Consultancy diluted the information into recommendations.

The recommendations are then presented into a framework forming the basis of a long-run vision for Malta, with key pillars running through the various statements made.

The authors believe that key to the survival of the local business community comes in the form of contributions on three fronts: employee-level, employer-level and Government level.

Employee-level recommendations

“We believe that even employees have a contribution to make, especially for the long-term. It is true that in the immediate and short run they are likely to be negatively impacted through lower incomes, reduced working hours or redundancies.

“Flexibility is going to be important for employees to adapt especially when knowing that special arrangements between them and employers are of a temporary nature.

“From the sentiment analysis we carried out and presented earlier on in the report, it is evident that employees understand that such arrangements are necessary, and they are willing to accept them. Employees should also use this time wisely to improve their skillset.”

It is being recommended that employees adopt a proactive and flexible approach in order to improve their skills and possibly acquire new knowledge.

Additionally, work ethic, especially for those employees working remotely from home, becomes critical to ensure that their employers will be able to see through the crisis.

Firm-level recommendations

“As companies navigate the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, there are a number of key issues corporate leaders should be thinking about, as well as steps they can take to not only react to severe business shocks now but also reshape their business and plan for recovery.

“Over the coming weeks and months, companies will have to integrate three different phases in their strategic decision-making.”

The report identifies survival, stabilisation and success as the three phases in strategic decision-making.

“Each phase will require different foci, analyses, data and mind-sets. However, it is important for companies to keep them as one integrated process.”

Currently business leaders are focusing on surviving the economic shock and on ensuring liquidity and business continuity, reads the report.

“Right after, the business will require a period of stabilisation to recover from the initial shock, restructure and transform its present business models in preparation of the new normal.”

In order to navigate this process, Seed has identified six mutually reinforcing priorities that it says leaders should consider and should use as a framework for overcoming these challenges. The priorities are as follows:

Prioritise people & safety, identify support measures, reshape strategy, adopt resilience -building, and transform business models

The report then delves into each priorities, providing high level recommendations on how each can and should be achieved.

For its Government level recommendations, after consulting with various social partners, making up business-interest groups, unions, employer associations and others, its proposals are made through four key pillars:

Fiscal measures, legal measures, administrative measures and monetary measures.

It then expands on each pillar, acknowledging the measures already announced by the Government so far, but added that consultations showed that more should be done.

In an additional feature, WhosWho.mt will delve into the tax recommendations authored by founding partner Nicky Gouder and Senior Consultant Luana Farrugia, as well as explore the sentiment survey conducted for the report.

Download the full report here.