The Covid 19 pandemic will be probably be remembered as a world-reordering event. It will accelerate social and economic changes that would otherwise have taken years to materialize. However long it will take, we will eventually beat back this virus, and our economy will eventually recover from the punishing worsening of the existing recession it will have brought about. But when the dust settles, the pandemic will have permanently reshaped our social and economic behavior. Here are a few outcomes that seem increasingly likely:

1. Companies that traffic in digital services and e-commerce will make immediate and lasting gains
2. Remote work will be more prevalent if not become the default
3. Many more jobs will be automated, and the many of rest will be made remote-capable
4. Education will take more speed in moving online
5. After an initial wave of (even further) isolationism, multilateral cooperation may flourish.
6. International supply chain arrangements will be reconstructed in such a way, to provide for flexibility in material/product sourcing
7. As long as there is no vaccine that is widely available, inter- and intra border movement of goods and people will be less often and less freely

Ironically, with the exception of the last 3 points, all of these developments have already been, to one degree or other, ongoing. They are not new to this pandemic. Their driver was only a different one, the 4IR (fourth industrial revolution). And now the Covid pandemic can be added.

And thus the question is, considering that we have little to show in terms of public policies and institutions to capitalize on these (disruptive) developments already in progress worldwide (and we should also not forget the challenges brought on by global warming, resource depletion and environmental degradation), whether we will get our act together in order to capitalize (as opposed to more protectionistic tendencies) on all these developments for the sake of the welfare of our people.

If we manage to give concrete answer to and consequently implementation of the above posed question, there is a bright future ahead for us. If not, there will be no difference in the state of affairs of this nation post-Covid compared to the pre-Covid period. And we all by now are aware that our pre-Covid state of the nation was already suffering long time from structural fundamental weaknesses, that are amongst others the cause of our poor resiliency against this Covid pandemic.

Michael (Mike) Willem is a former Minister of Labor & Social Affairs, acting Minister of Justice, former Member of Parliament and former Island Council Member. He currently works as a consultant.