Home ›› 05 Feb 2022 ›› Opinion
After over two years the beginning of the pandemic, some experts are now saying that pandemic is going to change its nature and become an endemic. The reason is the domination of the Covid-19 variant Omicron. According to John L. Campbell, a health expert who has been nothing short of a revelation in terms of Covid-19 information in social media, the Omicron variant, despite being hugely infectious (as it has 12 spike proteins), is less dangerous in terms of hospitalisation and fatalities. He predicts almost all of us will be exposed to this particular Covid-19 variant, which will result in the end of the pandemic. If someone is infected by the Omicron variant they will develop antibodies which most likely will help them develop immunity from any strain of the virus. Covd-19 will remain but only with the severity of a seasonal flu. On the other hand, there is another school of thought where a section of the scientific community around the world are saying that when it comes to Covid-19 infections there is nothing called mild, moderate, or severe. All the Covid-19 patients should have access to equal treatment. Even Bangladeshi experts in the field are warning that, it will be a mistake to become complacent by thinking this Omicron variant isn’t that harmful, as we have seen the Covid-19 virus frequently mutating.
China, nicknamed the world’s factory, has been in a serious diplomatic battle with the US. The consequence of their diplomatic conflicts, sanctions, and counter-sanctions against each other is causing many countries’ geopolitical and economic policies to change dramatically. Bangladesh has also been affected by the phenomenon; although there is no official announcement regarding the issue. Our ties with China have grown significantly over the years. It won’t be too much of an exaggeration to say that, China is looking at us from the perspective of countering India. Again one cannot ignore that despite having much internal and external pressure from various groups, our foreign ministry has been managing the diplomatic and bilateral relations with our counterparts extraordinarily well.
We saw a massive shift in the global supply chain system from the pandemic’s start. First, lockdowns forced businesses to stop import and export, creating a vacuum. Then with the introduction of vaccines, countries started to open their businesses, and suddenly there was a considerable demand for goods worldwide. The need for goods in wealthy countries like the US and China went up by ten times; now, it is estimated by supply chain experts that almost 10 per cent of the ocean going containers full of goods are heading towards the US, and empty containers are ending up in China. The unstable oil price is still one of the leading reasons for increased transportation costs. This is because, may it be the sea, land, or air transportation businesses, no one wants to venture in the dark and accept a loss. That is why despite the oil prices going down in the recent days these businesses are not willing to lower the freight costs.
Global inflation has disrupted the world of trade in a big way. 40 per cent of the US money in circulation has been printed in the last 8 to 10 months. For example, a 100 USD bill value has come down to around 93USD which has subsequently affected the world economy. As the price of transportation costs and inflation skyrockets, Bangladesh has to get industrial raw materials and other imported goods at a much higher price. That is why it’s no wonder that the price of edible oils are going up. A few months back, one of the spokespersons of City Group–the big business conglomerate– came on TV and explained how the price of edible oils would increase in the coming months, and he gave the causes of price increase from his perspective. The same thing happened in terms of many other goods; one feels more attention should have been given to counter such price hikes. Import duties on such commodities should be lowered to give the people some relief from the price hike. The inflation has already caused the people of the country to go through immense economic hardship, and further increase of prices of essentials let it be food, beverage, clothing, or anything else, will only cause further suffering.
At the beginning of the pandemic, there was a thought prevailing among the business community that the cost of transportation would come down; however, as per different projections from experts, the supply chain situation is not likely to change even this year. From Bangladesh’s perspective, we ought to decrease the duties of various industries’ raw materials. There are many manufacturers of different products who do not have an industrial license, and thus they have to import while paying a high duty and tax. The business community and local and foreign trade associations must come forward and keep the government informed about such matters.
They must also find ways to motivate such upcoming manufacturers to acquire industrial licenses. Ease of doing business must be ensured in this particular area. It is sad but true that many business people despite having enough resources cannot apply for an industrial import license or set up a factory. Many do not know where and how to apply for such documents. Again there is corruption, and that demotivates people.
From the exporter’s point of view, we are getting a lot of orders. On the other hand, importers are now under immense pressure and have to pay more than 2000 USD extra or more per container to import different goods. However the big industrialists are continuing to import raw materials in spite of the high costs. They are doing this to ensure that they do not lose their market share. The rise of transportation cost has affected Bangladeshi manufactures as they are on a constant run to compete with other countries to send goods at a competitive price.
There has been news floating around regarding China’s willingness to let Bangladesh run some industries previously belonging to China’s domain. It has been stated in different media reports that China has decided to grant duty-free access to 98 per cent of Bangladeshi products through the addition of 383 new goods, particularly leather and leather goods, in the zero-treatment list. From this writer’s viewpoint, such announcement from the Chinese government is a welcome one; they are basically asking us to gear up for more trade. However, we are not seeing that much of actual actions taken to hasten the process for getting the benefits from such opportunities.
The Covid-19 safety regulation are not punishments rather, they are there to keep us safe from further loss of human lives and economic turmoil, and we should follow them, as even from an economic point of view, if we and our family members, workers, colleagues are not healthy, we will not be able to work in the first place. By following proper health safety regulations and vaccinations, we can stand beside countries that have or are on the way to bring normalcy and regain their financial might. The government can only impose rules and regulations in order to keep the infection rate down. However, it is entirely up to the people how they want to handle the situation. Hopefully, if we follow the law and Covid-19 health regulations, we will remain on the safer side. Ignoring Covid-19 health regulations will only further increase number of infections, putting the economy in further distress. Thus we ought to follow the age-old saying, it is better to be safe now than be sorry later.
The writer is a journalist.
