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09.07.2020 9 OPINION Kevin-James Fenech Kevin is the founder and owner of JOB Search - jobsearch.mt and FENCI Consulting fenci.eu. He is a management consultant and business advisor by profession, focusing on strategy, human resources and recruitment. He has a passion for anything related to business and has written about the topic for over 10 years in most major newspapers or journals T he focus now must now be job creation and economic growth. We therefore need jobs not face masks. I lambast face masks because to me they represent the COVID19 doomsay- ers, who unfortunately use 'public health' as a blanket cheque to under- mine our liberty rights and economic well being. To them it's all about COV- ID19 and everything else is secondary. We simply can't let the 'solution' be worse than the 'problem' itself but sadly that is what we are doing which is go- ing to kill off any chances of a V-shape recovery. Economic health is as important as public health. Without economic health, countries tend to be crippled by long- term poverty, extreme political ideolo- gies which eat away at our freedoms and undermine our democracy and eventu- ally all this leads to war. e history of the world has taught us this painful les- son every century, sadly. We need to go back to basics and kick-start our economy and restrain the COVID19 scaremongers who keep pushing for overly-restrictive 'laws' or 'guidelines' which undermine business confidence or demonise incoming tour- ists which our economy desperately needs. e government has implemented its equivalent of the Marshall Plan; a one time injection into the economy. It is now, however, time for market forces to be allowed to play the capitalist game of wealth creation and wealth distribution for the benefit of the owners of capital and workers alike. e government has provided the spark to get the economy going again but then it must take a step back and let market forces play out with- out fear or hindrance from the COV- ID19 doomsayers. is is why now is the time for business confidence and stability to grow, other- wise the government's Marshall Plan will have been in vain and we will see the V-shape recovery turn into an L-shape. To guarantee recovery, the govern- ment has to respond to the COVID19 over-reaction, the scaremongering and (worst of all) the misinformation cam- paign, since this is undermining busi- ness confidence and negatively affecting economic recovery. For example, we can't have the Prime Minister telling us that the wearing of face masks is not mandatory and that the Public Health Authorities simply is- sue guidelines or recommendations on this 'principle'; yet two weeks later the Public Health Authorities tell us that the wearing of a face mask is a 'principle' which to them means a law. is cre- ates confusion and undermines business confidence, completely. Looking at it from a macro-economic level, we therefore need three econom- ic cogs to turn, without any COVID19 hindrance or obstacles. I am referring to the following: Tourism must be allowed to scale- up again, relatively quickly, without any shocks to the system or CVOID19 scaremongering since the cash inflows from this activity directly impact a lot of local businesses which has a huge multi- plier effect (up to 1/3 of GDP); e retail sector must be freed of all COVID19 hindrances including the wearing of face masks (given the lack of science to confirm their effectiveness) and F&B outlets need to have their ca- pacity restrictions lifted, since otherwise we are looking at a lot of businesses go- ing bankrupt and unemployment rising; Public sector spending must contin- ue a little while longer but at sustainable levels since any increase in future tax- ation due to government overspending now, will wipe out any future growth. High taxes never did any economic growth any good! I write all this because the research based on 6+ months of CVOID19 data shows us that the average mortality rate is a mere 0.2%-0.6% (comparable to se- vere flu) and the bulk of the population is barely affected by this novel virus (82% are asymptomatic). erefore, let our COVID19 response be proportion- ate to the actual threat rather than the perceived threat. Surprisingly, this is not just a Maltese reality, since governments all over the world continue to kill the economy in favour of COVID19 public health re- strictions and repressive laws; they are all copying each other and not engaging in critical thinking. I use the adjective 'kill' because travel is what makes the global economy function and currently we seem to be doing everything to kill travel. Let's focus on kick-starting econom- ic growth and refrain from COVID19 scaremongering and remove all COV- ID19 restrictions. Otherwise the 'solu- tion' really will be a lot worse than the 'problem'. Give us jobs and not face masks. Jobs not face masks

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