WINDHOEK, Jan. 20 — The unprecedented disruption by COVID-19 is accelerating the urgency for agility, adaptability, and transformation. In January 2022, Namibia’s annual inflation rate increased by 4.50%, compared to the 4.10% recorded in December 2021. If the Bank of Namibia is worried that inflation is likely to increase, then they may decide to increase the interest rate to reduce demand on 16 February 2022.
High inflation, even if it’s just short-lived, still costs the economy. For one thing, it erodes the pay of workers if prices rise faster than salaries. And if inflation pinches hard enough, it could cause millions of Namibians to spend less. Rising cases of the Omicron variant around the world are adding to the worries. The new strain could prolong the disruptions in global trade that have contributed to the supply shortages in Namibia and keep the upward pressure on prices. The supply-side constraints have gotten worse over the course of the pandemic, while the supply chain and economic risks are clearly now to longer and more-persistent bottlenecks, and thus to higher inflation. But during the pandemic, shuttered or understaffed factories couldn’t produce what people needed, and large manufacturers didn’t have reserve supplies because they weren’t designed to operate that way. The economic triple such as tourism, transport, and trade is a threat to the industry. There’s also been a labor shortage as people fall ill or have to care for sick relatives.
Businesses play a critical leadership role in defining a new paradigm for their business and operating model choices. While technological capabilities today are making it possible for companies to create immense value, organizations that can manage the fine balance between opportunity and responsibility will be the leaders of the future. Never before have companies, individuals, organizations, societies, and other entities and their staff been compelled to adapt to such massive change in such a short space of time due to the exigencies of the COVID-19 pandemic. Namibia Chamber of Commerce and Industry should understand the challenges businesses are facing and be more relevant. Despite the virus forcing almost every country to increase business closing and human distances, there is a growing necessity to be closer and united. In fact, the collaboration enables companies, individuals, and institutions to achieve a collective purpose.
Most businesses have already accepted that the new normal means working effectively with distributed connected teams. They are faced with new challenges that require purposeful, scheduled communication as well as flexible technology that will enable supply chains to collaborate and overcome obstacles.
These new trends are global and universal and cannot be ignored. The widespread adoption of information and communications technology by industry around the world is now paving the way for completely new disruptive approaches to development, production, and the entire supply chain. Not surprisingly, business disruptions are signaling a strong decline in revenue and profitability. In the medium to long term, Governments should build economic resilience to shocks by building productive capacities and transforming their production and export structures, particularly towards manufacturing. Governments may seize the opportunity created by the crisis to strengthen efforts to diversify their economies and lay solid foundations for sustained growth and employment creation, as well as to enhance the capacities of their economies to absorb shocks. As Governments and regional organizations have enhanced international cooperation and invested in further trade facilitation reforms during the COVID-19 crisis, the progress achieved should also help revive international trade. It will be important to assess what has worked and what has not so that any progress made during lockdown measures can be locked in.
Economic disruptions caused by COVID-19 have resulted in an unprecedented collapse of international trade. Beyond the macroeconomic level, the COVID-19 crisis has disrupted markets. The pandemic is acting as a catalyst for deep transformations in global value chains related to new technologies, growing economic nationalism, and the sustainability imperative. While trade was a major transmitter of economic disruptions across the globe, it also plays a key role in fostering economic recovery from the current COVID-19 crisis. Economic resilience will not be achieved by closing borders, but rather by diversifying the origin and destination of markets. Overall, trade policies that support a swift and resilient return of the private sector will help leverage Governments’ burden of building back better.
To summarize, every organization should develop a visionary leadership in which short-term actions are reconciled with the most ambitious long-term goals. It is only through cooperation that a better future can be built that is more resilient, inclusive, and sustainable. The sense of collaboration between businesses and institutions should be increased so that the virus can be fought together and the fragile economy can recover. From now on, nothing will be the same anymore.
By Josef Kefas Sheehama
