Looking Ahead

It is highly unlikely that we will forget 2020 very easily. The year that started quite unremarkably, turned out to be an unprecedented unfolding of events that took the entire planet by surprise. 2020 seriously put world economies to the test, and brought global social systems to their knees.

With the spread of Coronavirus, in the early months of 2020, the world was forced to rethink its priorities as it grappled with an ignored and forgotten force of nature that took everyone unawares. Locally this was no exception, as the virus forced the country into a partial lock-down.

The Malta Chamber, while itself already designing and managing an internal restructuring process, embraced this time to become closer to its members than ever before, as well as reach out to entirely new business sectors which had developed or reorganised over the recent years. The pandemic brought about a positive sense of collegial thinking and a very strong appreciation for aligned personal and business sector energies.

In fact, 2020 was a year which offered an undeniable opportunity to truly focus on what matters most as driven by the core values of The Malta Chamber.
COVID is still very much a reality and numbers are not showing any sign of slowing down. Yet hope reveals itself bright on the horizon as a number of reputable research institutions are in advanced stages of commercialising their vaccine solutions, with distribution systems being deployed as early as December of this year.

This sheds light on a very important matter. As we all look forward to a new form of stability, will we be going back to the ways of old, and simply place this challenging year behind us? Shall we throw away lessons learnt in the past months? I hope not. Shall we benefit from the sacrifices we have made as a business community as derived from strong life principles such as honesty, integrity and respect for each other, our employees and our loved ones?
The COVID 19 crisis pushed us into a tight corner, the only way out of which was a heightened sense of courage, ingenuity and flexibility. Some of us were agile in pivoting their entire business model from one sector to the next, as they saw opportunities there for the taking. Our Chamber of Commerce has nurtured, supported and motivated this value and will continue to do so even after COVID in order to enshrine this ambition of becoming better at a personal level and also at a corporate level during every day of our lives.

This is why the Chamber worked hard to support and promote a Business Re-engineering Scheme to the Government in July. The objective was to ensure that all businesses will embrace the opportunity to analyse and test their economic models led by business leaders who embark on a personalised restructuring journey aimed at smart and sustainable objectives to develop into resilient business models. The scheme was launched in November, and we are convinced that it will make a real difference for businesses, the national economy and the quality of life of our nation.

This is an excerpt from the upcoming Economic Vision magazine, which will be delivered to members in the coming days. In this edition of Economic Vision the country’s foremost political and business leaders will reflect on the challenging yet insightful year behind us, while expressing their ambitions and plans for the one ahead.