Speaking in today’s episode of The Boardroom with presenter and business-writer Jo Caruana, Malta Chamber of Commerce President Perit David Xuereb emphasized the need to use the time and circumstances of COVID-19 to re-evaluate and take stock of what local businesses need to move forward within a changing economy.

At the outset of the pandemic, the Chamber President affirms that the entity’s first priority was to ensure relationships between employers and employees were maintained with wage supplement schemes. In recent weeks however, Perit Xuereb maintains that it became clear that more was needed. 

“Preserving the relationships between employers and employees, while good, will not restart the economy – we need to look ahead. So, we’ve put together a Think Tank that enables like-minded people to come together and try to look into this foggy crystal ball,” he reveals.

“There will certainly be changes to our lives post-COVID, but the values and expectations of the community need to be understood,” Perit Xuereb attests, adding that values are changing, with an appreciation for the fragility of the environment and our health, among others, having increased. 

“This Think Tank has engaged approximately 150 people to come together and think strategically across this fog,” he explains, adding that the Chamber is now in the process of analysing the information that has come from these e-round tables, “and what it is that we expect to see and prepare ourselves for within the different sectors of our economy to be able to feed back into what we hope will be a buffet of initiatives that we should prioritise and that, I hope, will become the diction of what the Chamber will be talking about in the months to come.” 

Despite not being able to predict Malta’s path to economic recovery, the Chamber President references the situation in China. “The economy in China has picked up to about 90 per cent of what it was last year. That’s good news, however, that 10 per cent that China has not yet made up, which could be reflective of what will happen to us, at best – is a major life-changer,” he says, affirming that that percentage is expected to change the manner in which we live and the quality of life which we lead.

“That 10 per cent is crucial and can be bridged in two important ways. One of them is re-education and re-skilling – the ability to have an adaptable workforce which is able to make the jump from one economy on to another. That is an area in which Malta is very poor. When we look at what’s happening in our education system, I would say that the ambition to have a flexible workforce that is prepared to reskill is very poor – and is so, perhaps on account of the super-hot economy of recent years,” he warns.

The second priority Perit Xuereb points towards is Research & Development – that is, “the innovative way with which we are able to conduct our business and improving our competitiveness with the rest of the world.” Although this, again, leaves much to be desired, in his view. “Malta has been faring very poorly for many years in this regard. R&D is another gap that we need to bridge. This is really in my mind what is going to enable us to go back to where we were in terms of economic numbers.”

“The incentives launched by Government last Monday are great as long as we realise that they are stop-gap initiatives and we should be using this time to think hard about the future,” he continues.

So how should business be using this time? “All businesses should find the energies within themselves, at any given time in their history, to stop and think. This allows any business to research, regenerate and figure out what works and doesn’t work. That is what we would normally call a business plan. What we have advocated, especially now, is that there is no better time to stop and think. This is the time to rethink and become stronger, and perhaps go in directions we would have otherwise not considered,” says Perit Xuereb. 

“Clearly at the top of that,” he points out, “is the need for a national vision. We need to know what we are doing in the light of what it is we are doing on a national level. If this is not clear and we allow ourselves to take decisions only on gut feeling, therein lies the risk,” he goes on to warn.

Maintaining that the coming months will likely not be rosy, with unemployment numbers expected to increase, the Chamber Presidents warns that businesses, unless they do something dramatic now, will need to face the effects of COVID – particularly when the wage supplements come to a close. “From a Chamber perspective, this is what most members are worried about, and rightly so – it is really up to us to take this three-month window to really think about what is going to happen beyond all of this. Businesses will need to stand on their own two feet, and actions will need to be taken,” he says.

Finally, his one piece of business advice for entrepreneurs in the weeks and months to come is keeping a level head and positive outlook.

“All businesses go through highs and lows, and this is obviously a major low. But like with all lows, we know that there will be a correction. In order to move forward, one must think outside the box and not take anything for granted,” he says, emphasising the importance of being positive – “positive energy is an essential ingredient to be able to fight the complexities of this pandemic, which include the effects on mental health.”

“Eat well and keep fit and surround yourself with people who are energized to be creative. And if it needs surgery, take action and do whatever it takes in re-skilling your staff and re-directing your business – when we pick ourselves up, it will be a huge learning curve. This will fill us with so much experience that I daresay that we will be able to battle any other disruptive environment in a manner that we have not been able to achieve before.”