Since the diagnosis of the first case of Covid-19 pandemic in Bangladesh on March 08, 2020, Chinese Enterprises Association in Bangladesh (CEAB) has positively responded to the call to fully support the Covid-19 pandemic prevention and control work of Bangladesh government by strictly abiding by the requirements of epidemic prevention and control, coordinating it's prevention and control and production and operation of it's member-enterprises, refining deployment and responsibility, which provides strong support and service guarantees for promoting Bangladesh's economic development and the construction of "Belt and Road" with high quality.
ISOLATION: The anti-Covid pandemic practice in China in the past three months has proved that self-discipline and isolation at home is one of the effective ways to combat the virus. Being aware of the contagion and harmfulness of Covid-19, CEAB issued a notice at the first time calling on its members to strictly abide by the emergency control measures of Bangladesh government, consciously work at home for self-isolation to reduce the possible spread of the virus caused by the movement of people.
CEAB also requested its members not to believe in rumours, not to spread rumours, and fight the epidemic with Bangladeshi people in one mind.
HELPING EACH OTHER: CEAB actively carried out social responsibility and launched the donation initiative of "helping them stay home" at the first time calling on all Chinese enterprises and Chinese compatriots in Bangladesh to donate money to local poor families who are in economic difficulty due to the epidemic. A total of more than Tk 2.0 million was raised within three days.
Meanwhile, CEAB funded more than Tk 0.80 million and purchased 10 tonnes of rice and 2,000 litres of edible oil. All the rice and edible oil, donated by CEAB and purchased with the raised money, were distributed among 3,500 local poor families through Bangladesh-China Friendship Centre (BCFC) and three local non-governmental organisations JAAGO, LIONS, OVA.
Besides, CEAB members have also spontaneously donated epidemic prevention and living materials to local cooperative organisations and poor families. For example, China Harbour donated 3,000 Covid-19 test kits, 3,000 personal protective equipment (PPE) and 20,000 medical masks to Bangladesh's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. China National Machinery Import & Export Co. (CMC), China General Technology Group (GT) donated a large number of anti-epidemic materials to Bangladesh government, including 1.0 million masks, 10,000 protective clothing, 10,000 goggles and 2,000 temperature measuring guns. New Hope Ltd. urgently purchased and distributed food items among 475 jobless families at Vangnahati village in Sreepur under Gazipur district. Hunan Construction Engineering Group Ltd. donated 2,000 N95 masks, 10,000 disposable masks and 10,000 disposable gloves to Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives. Harbin Electric Corporation donated 50,000 masks to BPDB, 20,000 masks to RPCL and 24,800 masks to United Group. CLIO Shipping and Logistics Bangladesh Ltd donated 10,000 medical masks, 500 sets of protective clothing, 20 protective glasses, 500 pairs of disposable gloves, 1000 bottles of alcohol-free disinfectant solution and five cases of 84 disinfectant solution to Chittagong Port Authority, local partners and families near the Khulshi residence in the port city.
STAYING FIRMLY: Operating in Bangladesh for more than a decade, most of CEAB members have regarded Bangladesh as their second home and arecommitted to Bangladesh's economic development. After the pandemic outbreak worsened in Bangladesh, many countries took the action of evacuating their nationals from Bangladesh. CEAB members, however, chose to stay firmly in Bangladesh and work together to fight against the pandemic with the people of Bangladesh. All Chinese companies, especially Chinese engineering contractors have done their utmost to ensure safe production and achieved the tasks of epidemic prevention, operation and production at the same time, which made positive efforts to Bangladesh economic recovery.
PLANNING AHEAD: Faced with the global pandemic, CEAB members actively introduced prevention and control measures that were effective in China among local partners and friends, produced epidemic prevention brochures in English and Bangladeshi version and made well-illustrated PPT courseware to promote pandemic prevention and control knowledge among local employees. Besides, they also took more measures to maximise the protection of the health and safety of local employees by doing routine temperature tests for all local and Chinese employees, establishing "zero daily report" system, ensuring the supply of daily necessities and medicine, etc.
SEEKING COMMON DEVELOPMENT: The fast spread of the pandemic has cast a shadow on Bangladesh's economic development. CEAB maintained close ties with its members and discussed how to resume production in Bangladesh after the pandemic and how to explore business opportunities and realise new development by upgrading and transformation in the "post-pandemic" period, and thus promote the rapid economic development of Bangladesh.
The traditional friendship between Bangladesh and China has a long history. We believe that China and Bangladesh will work together to defeat the pandemic and stabilise economic development. CEAB will unite the vast Chinese enterprises in Bangladesh to work together with the Bangladeshi government and people to overcome the difficulties and win the international battle against the pandemic at an early date and continue to strive to promote bilateral economic and trade cooperation and friendship among the people of the two countries.
Lin Weiqiang is President, Chinese Enterprises Association in Bangladesh (CEAB).