Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, New Zealand has been hit hard, with its
GDP shrinking by 12.2% between April and June as the country faced the closure of its boarders
and a lockdown. The country has also faced a recession for the first time since the global
financial crisis. New Zealand’s coronavirus pandemic has been declining, and the restrictions
have been lifted gradually to try and ensure that the economy recuperates (Tourismnewzealand,
2020). The government is hopeful that the current situation with the pandemic will recover
quickly to enable its citizens to go back to their normal livelihood. Due to the efforts of the
government to combat COVID-19, the cases have been reduced to less than ten per day.
New Zealand has approximately five million people, and most of them rely on the
tourism sector for their livelihood as the country is a major tourist attraction destination. Due to
the high dependence on the tourism sector, the economy has been adversely affected. The sector
is estimated to contribute 6% of the country’s GDP, which indicates that it plays a significant
role in support of the government revenue for growth and development. The retail sector
depended highly on the tourists who visited the country due to its sandy beaches
(Tourismnewzealand, 2020). During the lockdown, only goods were permitted to enter the
country through the seaports and airports.
As the cold weather continues to hit the country due to the entrance of winter and
autumn, the government is assisting with the insulation of houses to minimize respiratory
diseases that are associated with the spread of the coronavirus disease. Over 600,000 households
are in need of insulated homes and heating support to ensure that they keep warm during the
winter. There has been a push for the reliance on clean energy consumption within the
communities and households. The use of solar power is being recommended as there has been a project aiming at ensuring that over 1.5 million homes are covered (Greenpeace, 2020). Electric
transport is also being advocated to minimize carbon emissions.
This paper provides a COVID recovery plan for New Zealand and is based on the
suggestions of the IEA sustainable recovery plan (2020). As a government advisor, I have been
requested to come up with the plan and have been provided with 0.7% of the GDP to spend on
the plan. The amount is going to be allocated to various sectors, with the focus being on three
major objectives. These objectives include the creation of jobs, boosting economic growth, and
the reduction of carbon emissions.

The Tourism Sector Recovery Plan

The tourism sector has been the most hit industry in New Zealand, with almost complete
closure leading to a major disruption to the economy. It requires being reconsidered s it employs
the largest number of people in the country. Before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic,
this sector was the largest export industry in the country as it generated the highest amount of
foreign exchange. The tourism sector employs approximately 8.4% of the workforce in New
Zealand, which means that many people rely on the sector directly. As of 2016, there were about
188,000 people employed permanently on a full-time job in this sector. The tourism sector is
estimated to have contributed approximately NZ$16.2 billion by the end of March in 2019. It
generated export earnings of about NZ$34 billion in the financial year of 2018-2019.
Considering the impact of coronavirus pandemic in this sector, this plan puts the tourism
sector as the main priority in the 0.7% financing provided. This is because recovering the sector
would ensure that the lost jobs are recovered, and the economy of New Zealand recovers. The
sector will consume 60% of the provided financing for the plan, which will be on an annual
basis. The tourism sector in New Zealand depends on the biodiversity of the region, and the tourists are attracted to this. Therefore, the first plan is to restore the lost biodiversity over time
as the coronavirus pandemic has provided ample time for this.
The cleaning program will be in collaboration with the Tiaki Care for New Zealand,
which encourages people to be guardians of their environment. The proactive exercise requires to
be funded as those who will be recruited will have a stipend for their work. This means that there
will be job creation for those who will be participating in the program. The program is expected
to be running once a week, but in the first week, the exercise will be carried out all the days in all
parts of the country. This is estimated to cost 10% of the amount set for the sector. The amount
will be used in paying the workers and the recycling and treatment of the collected garbage.
The New Zealand government established a tourism transition program that was intended
to support and offer advice to the businesses dealing with tourism and has been affected by the
pandemic. The Māori Tourism businesses have been affected negatively by the COVID-19
pandemic leading to the closure of most of them as they cannot support their operations (Pwc,
2020). The Qualmark initiative has been of significant help to the tourism sector as it has been
offering support to the businesses so that they can manage to go through the pandemic without
collapsing. The regional business partners’ network has been supporting the small and medium
tourism businesses during the pandemic. These three sectors will receive a total of NZ$15
million to support them in their course.
To ensure that the tourism sector regains its popularity on the world map, this plan
advocates for the promotion of domestic tourism during this time of the coronavirus pandemic. It
has been shown that there are many New Zealanders who travel overseas to countries such as
Australia for adventure. The spending by New Zealanders has been calculated to approximately
NZ$8,020 million while that spent domestically is NZ$3,839 million. This program will be responsible for identifying the various tourism destinations and come up with plans on how to
improve the infrastructures in these areas. This program will be assigned NZ$ 10 million, which
will be used for the development of the infrastructures.
In the cleanup process, the jobless people will require some training on handling the
various types of wastes so that they do not cause any harm to their health. They will also learn
how to utilize waste products and make them useful products that are more eco-friendly. The
training program will take three days and cost approximately NZ$1 million. The program
expects to recruit at least 150,000 people in different parts of New Zealand and retain them.
After training and the cleaning exercises, they are expected to develop jobs such as recycling
waste and employ others.

Sustainable Clean Energy

The use of fossil fuels has dominated most industries and the transport sector. This has
led to the pollution of the environment leading to climate change in New Zealand over the years.
Carbon emissions have resulted in global warming, and concerns over this have been raised. It is
estimated that approximately 20% of the carbon emissions in New Zealand are from the transport
sector (Greenpeace, 2020). The IEA (2020) recommends the transition to electric transport.
Therefore, the plan is to advocate for the use of electric-powered vehicles for transport as they
are emission-free. In the cities, it is recommended that people rely on electric bikes and electric
scooters for commuting.
To ensure that the realization of a transport sector that has minimal carbon emission, the
plan suggests the implementation of policies that require automobiles to have lower emissions.
The government should minimize taxes on vehicles that are hybrids and lower the tax further for
fully electric cars and any other mode of transport. Electric vehicles are cheap to run and maintain, but the cost of purchasing even an electric scooter is very high in New Zealand (Pwc,
2020). The IEA report (2020) indicates that the use of electric transport modes, including electric
trains, has the potential to create more jobs, reduce pollution of air, and reshape the future of
transportation.
To ensure that the transport sector changes to the use of electric-powered vehicles, this
plan will use 20% of the provided GDP. This money will be used to create awareness of the
importance of minimizing carbon emissions in our environment. The program will involve the
use of various media platforms and organizing meetings with communities to educate them. The
initiative will also be advocating for the use of renewable sources of energy, especially solar
energy. It will be offering solar panels and batteries to the neediest in society and have no access
to electricity. The Greenpeace recovery plan (2020) indicates that New Zealand will require 1.5
million solar homes by 2050. Lastly, the electricity grid in New Zealand requires to be expanded
to meet the increasing demand for power. The plan will be to spend 10% of the revenue on
promoting the expansion of the national grid.

Climate Change

Climate change has become a global concern, and business leaders have been at the
forefront to develop policies that would help to combat this crisis. New Zealand government had
set policies to combat climate change, but the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic led to halting
some of these policies. The New Zealand government has focused on reducing emissions, but the
2020 budget did not address climate change effectively (Oecd, 2020). Therefore, there is a need
to put emphasis on it by educating people. People are aware of the changes that have been
occurring due to climate change but do not understand the causes. Ensuring that they understand
where it comes from would help to reduce emissions and thus control the changes.

To achieve considerable control of climate change, the strategy will be to use the
remaining 10% on projects that help to end the climate change crisis. One of the projects will be
on nutrition, where people will be advocated to use organic food instead of animal-based
products. Almost half of the greenhouse emissions in New Zealand come from livestock
farming, and if this was to be reduced, the emissions would also decline (Pwc, 2020). The other
project will be on the rehabilitation of forests by planting more trees to create carbon sink pools
and thus minimize the amount of carbon in the air.

Estimated Impact on Growth

From the IEA strategic plan, there will be an average of 9 million jobs generated from th
energy sector. This is in relation to the one million dollars for the creation of ten to fifteen new
jobs. In this plan is calculated that there will be the creation of approximately 250,000 jobs in
this sector. Of these jobs, 40% will be specialized jobs. In the tourism sector, the plan projects
200,000 new jobs while the cleaning program anticipates 150,000 jobs with a multiplier effect of
up to 500,000 jobs. The plan is estimated to have a positive impact on growth based on the IEA
projections. With the growth of tourism, it is expected that the sector will be able to generate 4%
of the GDP in the first year and increase by 2% annually in the next consecutive years.

Conclusion

In New Zealand, the tourism sector has been the hardest hit, leading to the loss of
thousands of jobs. With 0.7% of the GDP, the plan is to revive the sector through various
initiatives that will result in the recreation of lost jobs and other new jobs. This is expected to use
60% of the 0.7% GDP to ensure that it is revived. Another focus of the plan is to ensure that
there is the use of clean energy and minimizes the use of fossil fuels, and this will consume 20%
of the GDP amount provided. It advocates for a shift to electric vehicles, bikes and scooters to minimize carbon emissions and allocates 10%. The last consideration is to focus on the fight
against climate change, which has become a global problem. This sector will be allocated 10% to
assist in the minimization of greenhouse gases. The strategic plan anticipates regenerating at
least one million jobs in New Zealand in the long run.

 

References

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