Summer deadline for national post-Covid strategy, Bonnici says

Minister for Research, Innovation and the Co-ordination of the Post-COVID-19 Strategy, Owen Bonnici, has set up a steering group for the co-ordination of the development of a national post COVID Strategy, giving it a summer deadline for coming up with the strategy.

In a press release this afternoon, it was announced that this steering group will be chaired by Professor Simone Borg. 

Prof. Borg read for a doctorate degree in Laws and subsequently obtained her Ph.D. on the Conservation of Marine Natural Resources. She has worked in foreign affairs and environmental affairs under various administrations and participated in various research projections with the European Union and the United Nations. She is also the Head of Department of the Environmental Law and Resources Law within the Faculty of Laws at the University of Malta and is a visiting lecturer in various foreign universities. She is the Director of the Internal Master of Arts Programme in Ocean Governance and a Fellow of the Sustainability Institute in Bruges. Prof. Borg is an Expert on the European Union Expert Team for Horizon 2020.

The group will also have the following members; Ms Joyce Dimech, Mr Mario Galea, Mr Godwin Mifsud, Mr James Pearsall, Prof Gordon Sammut, Mr Clive Tonna, and Mr Paul Zahra. In the furtherance of its work, the steering committee will be able to appoint the necessary technical experts to provide specialised assistance.

Noting that the steering group is made up of people with various competences, Minister Bonnici thanked them for accepting this responsibility.

“As the pandemic unfolded, the government has acted swiftly and decisively to protect the health of its citizens and safeguard the Maltese economy.  It is crucially important to co-ordinate and implement an ambitious and robust post pandemic strategy that enables us to keep moving forward in a changed world,” said the ministry in a statement. 

“This change offers the potential for our country to emerge better and stronger than ever before by being innovative and changing threats into opportunities.”

The steering group says it will be governed by “the principles of sustainability and long-term vision, the identification and exploitation of our comparative advantages, the strengthening of Malta’s resilience and the betterment of social inclusion and justice.”

The group will be taking stock of strategies which have been drawn up, or are in the process of being drawn up, in the various entities or ministries which impinge on post COVID-19 recovery and resilience. The group will then be drafting a holistic post Covid-19 strategy for Malta, also following an analysis of similar strategies in other countries.

The group has been directed to present the strategy by no later than the end of the second quarter of the current year.