In the past 2020, an unexpected COVID-19 has ravaged the world, which brought profound influence and severe challenge to the world public health security and global economic development. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, China and Bangladesh have supported each other, worked together and fought against the epidemic side by side, which wrote a new chapter of China-Bangladesh friendship, and set an example for international anti-epidemic cooperation.
During the process of fighting the COVID-19 epidemic, CEAB took initiatives to assume social responsibility, actively raised materials and donations for epidemic prevention and control, and contributed relief to poor local families and greatly supported the Bangladeshi government and people to overcome the epidemic challenges, which is a good transmission of China-Bangladesh friendship.
Faced with severe challenges caused byCOVID-19,CEAB led its member enterprises to meet and overcome the difficulties together. Through the formulation of a series of effective epidemic prevention and control measures, CEAB has been able to ensure the health safety of its members and resumption of production of Chinese enterprises in Bangladesh.Many Bangladesh state-level major infrastructure projects implemented by Chinese enterprises in Bangladesh, such as Padma Bridge,Padma Railway Link,Karnaphuli River Tunnel, Bangladesh-China Friendship Exhibition Center (BCFEC), 2×660 Coal-Fired Power Station in Payara and The Fourth Generation National Data Center, have been carried out in an orderly mannerand achieved a series of major progress, which made important contributions to the economic and social development and the improvement of the people’s livelihood of Bangladesh.
At present, the COVID-19epidemic situation is still spreading all over the world. The cumulative confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Bangladesh have exceeded 530,000 cases.With winter coming, the epidemic situation is more severe and personnel infection risk will be increased. We are pleased to see that Bangladeshi Government is taking effective measures, actively introducing strict epidemic prevention and control regulations, allocating special funds for the epidemic prevention and control in a timely manner, importing COVID-19 vaccines abroad to help people gradually get rid of the shadow of the epidemic.We believe Bangladesh will overcome the epidemic soon, restore economic and social development, and achieve greater development in the post-epidemic era.
China is promoting the formation of a new development pattern in which domestic and international double cycles promote each other with the domestic big cycle as the main body. China’s economyachieved 2.3% growth in 2020, which is a rare positive growth in many negative growth countries. On July 1,2020, China adopted a zero tariff policy on about 97% of the products imported from Bangladesh, so that more than 8256 products from Bangladesh entered China to enjoy tax exemption. Bangladesh is also actively working to graduate from the Group of Least Developed Countries, which will play an important role in Bangladesh in alleviating the impact of the epidemic and revitalizing the economy as soon as possible. We believe China and Bangladesh economic and trade cooperation will usher in new development opportunities and greater cooperation space in the post epidemic era. China and Bangladesh enterprises should further grasp the business opportunities under the framework of “Belt and Road”, strengthen cooperation in the fields of trade, investment, aid, major projects, industrial park cooperation and the construction of free trade zones, and furtherly expand cooperation in 5G technology, Internet of things, public health infrastructure and other fields to acceleratthe development of bilateral economic and trade cooperation.
CEAB will continue to grasp the new window of economic development of the “post epidemic ear, and conscientiously perform its service functions inleadingits member enterprises to stick to their post in Bangladehand make contribution to Bangladesh. CEAB will also do a good job in ensuring production and preventing and controlling the epidemic situation, inject new impetus into the economic and trade cooperation between China and Bangladesh in the “post-epidemic era “, and jointly promote greater development in economic and trade cooperation between the two countries.
Written by Lin Weiqiang, President of Chinese Enterprises Association in Bangladesh.
