Approximately 3,000 people will no longer receive financial support from the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program by the end of the month even as many businesses remain on hiatus, Whipps said.
“We cannot continue the wait-and-see approach and expect people with no sources of income to sustain themselves — we need a plan of action,” he added.
The president-elect’s economic recovery subcommittee will look at all the options and avenues to avoid an economic depression, get people back to work and businesses operating again., he said.
The subcommittee is in “active consultation with health professionals, experts, and partners to come up with the safest and most effective plan that can keep people safe from Covid-19 and allay anxieties in the community while moving forward to revive our tourism industry,” Whipps added.
These discussions include Taiwan which has been successful in controlling the transmission of Covid-19 and has been free from community spread of the virus to date.
The subcommittee is also following up on an earlier dialogue regarding a possible travel bubble between Palau and Taiwan.
The subcommittee is made up of individuals from different sectors of the community, including business, tourism, and health.
“Palauans are the driving force behind our country’s development,” Whipps said. “Thus, the subcommittee also emphasizes that the return of tourism will also mean an opportunity to prioritize Palauans in the workforce — ‘A Kot a Rechad er Belau’ — by empowering them with job opportunities that have normally been acquiesced to foreigners.”
