Going out the past days was particularly gloomy. There were not many vehicles and people on the streets. And what dominated conversations everywhere were the dear departed of families, courtesy of Covid-19. Other ubiquitous subjects were MSME businesses which bravely struggled on the past two years. They could have finished the race to survival as they were still breathing last December, but when the Omicron variant came and new restrictions were imposed, the owners of such decided to throw in the towel in respect of such businesses. Thousands suddenly became jobless with a very low chance of finding new employment.
Obviously, the general gloom must be lifted if any hope of economic revival were to happen in the short term. The general populace has to respond to some psychological and economic stimuli only the government can hatch.
The people have to believe that there is hope in plunging their money in any kind of investment. That it would not be tantamount to throwing it into an abyss with no expectation of being recouped.
That can only happen if the government has credibility to assure a level economic playing field. Where it will do the necessary moves like freeing up economic resources to stabilize the economy’s fundamentals. Without that, nobody would risk their hard-earned money.
But the morale of the people will remain low if all they see in government and its actions are motivated by corruption, and everybody from those on the top of the bureaucracy to the lowest bureaucrats are on the take.
Any kind of economic investment in such an environment would only be due to necessity and not with any kind of patriotic intentions.**