.
A week ago, Energy Minister George Lakotrypis signed an MoU with Block 12 oil and gas explorers Noble Energy, Delek and Avner. Together, all stakeholders will jointly decide on how and at what cost to build an LNG liquefaction plant that will allow for exports of natural gas from the various offshore gasfields. This was a truly historical moment that laid to rest all concerns about cheap energy and a rapid economic recovery. But that is in the medium-to-long term.
What is needed in the short term is to set up a task force that will include the recently merged national oil and gas companies Kretyk and Defa, the ministers in charge of the economy, energy, industry, labour, transport, defense and foreign policy. In other words, nearly the whole Cabinet, with the addition of technocrats and a significant input from the president’s think tank, the Economic Advisory Council headed by Dr Christoforos Pissarides.
What we are witnessing is a knee-jerk reaction to developments. We seem to have no national policy of how to deal with an economy that is currently in heavy debt to one that will become cash-rich by the beginning of the next decade. Unemployment has reached record levels and will continue to rise in the absence of any support to the labour market and the business community that is expected to absorb graduates and the jobless. Companies are closing down under the heavy burden of taxes and payrolls they can no longer sustain, while banks, in their effort to recoup the cheap, unsecured money they lent out by the bushel, are now clamping down on individuals and businesses that can no longer stand the pressure.
And then there are the developments in our part of the world. Israel is quietly building up its energy sector and capitalising on the political vacuum of its neighbours, Egypt is falling apart and Syria has reached the pit, Lebanon is a powder keg ready to burst and Turkey is in a self-discovery mode and will come out of the current crisis the wiser.
Nicos Anastasiades has his plate full and cannot deal with all these issues at once, even though he is three months into his presidency and we have seen some progress in some areas and little or none in others. Perhaps now is the time for some of his ministers to take the initiative and get things moving as part of a collective effort where all will join in, including technocrats and high-ranking public servants.
A good leader is one who delegates work to competent people who will get things done.
So, then, where’s your task force, Mr. President?
