There is a plan in the pipeline to create a national economic council, composed of veteran economic experts from the public and private sectors, to review the current economic crisis and come up with a fresh perspective on how to breathe new life into the national economy.

 

Of course, the country already has several bodies for dealing with exactly the same agenda, including the National Policies Council and the Economic and Social Council, over and above the existing machineries within the government.

 

We have to give the new council the benefit of the doubt and sufficient time to undergo the projected studies of the current economic policies and come up with answers for why all that is being done in this vein is not enough.

 

One would have thought that what the country needs now is not just another forum for academic studies, but rather an action-oriented body, with executive powers to steer the country out of its current economic woes and hardships.

 

In order for any such body to enjoy wide powers aiming to correct the current economic course of the country, it would require the adoption of proper legislation that bestows it with the power to do what it deems necessary.

 

This would mean that Parliament must be convened for this purpose, with a view to adopting the necessary legislation. Otherwise, the new council would end up becoming another talking shop that would fail to come up with real remedies to the ailing economy. The country has had enough of such bodies already and does not need to add to them another one.