Cranking up Georgia’s Economy
OP-ED
One of the most qualified automotive tips is to move an unused vehicle around every once in a while, rather than have it sitting immobile. The same is true with people. And it can also work when applied to the economy. The thought is very simple but extremely practicable. They say the global economy is at a temporary halt, including ours, but nobody in the world can say with certainty how long the global money-making machine is going to be idle. More so when we talk about the Georgian economy!
Sporadic rumors would have it that economic matters might improve on what they were before the virus outbreak. There is one funny streak to the current economic situation though: those who are responsible for the product output of the country might use the corona moment as a scapegoat to put all possible economic failures on the death-hauling shoulders of the imperceptible microorganism. Why not? Corona wouldn’t mind the blame because the malicious germ is very busy building its own perfidious plans to destroy our sources of our survival.
They say the rate of unemployment could be lowered in Georgia thanks to the economic plan to create thousands of new jobs by moving certain industrial enterprises from China to this country, but it is not easy to prognosticate how soon it might take place, if at all. In the meanwhile, those businesses that were paralyzed for well-known medical reasons are now poised to reopen, but again, nobody can predict the level of their successful operation. We should consider why. Take, for instance, the restaurant business, which was very well developed in Georgia. All kinds of eateries were visible, popular and profit-smart here and their absence has made our lives terribly dull and lifeless. But even if all of them reopen today, the restaurants, cafes, diners, coffee-rooms, bars or ice-cream joints will have to manifest a certain amount of patience until the public starts enjoying them full-time again, because the traditional clientele of those small business spots have gotten unused to them and need time to reacquire the old habit of eating out or spending their leisure time in a public space.
Moreover, in order for us to create a certain unison between businesses and customers, we will have to not only crank up the businesses, but the customers too, because the laze has overwhelmed most of us due to the imposed home-stay, and I’m afraid the secure domestic environment has made us feel better indoors than in the open air, although many would say that they are now tired of spending this much time at home.
Anyways, the longer a business, be it a big factory or a small store, stays shut, the more moss and rust it gets covered with, and the more problematic it becomes to give it new life. These fresh life opportunities and presumptions might all be true, but not very helpful if the virus wants to stay around to deprive us of our revived spirits. Frankly, I am getting allergic to online information because a) it is irritatingly controversial, b) I have no idea which piece of the available info about the virus is true and which is false, and c) the avalanche of unchecked information is likely to trigger a nervous breakdown.
So, maybe it is indeed much better to get back to our old-time routines and let them work as the real-time circumstances allow. What leaves no doubt is that action is better than stagnation in any possible case. Fearing the monster is normal, of course, but dying of that fear will not save the day. Am I being foolishly optimistic? Never! I am just trying to be reasonably pragmatic. Stopping life and not knowing when to restart it is the worst thing our imagination is compelled to accommodate, so let’s do something that keeps us ticking!
By Nugzar B. Ruhadze
Image source: news.sky.com