People resilient to cope with the negative impact of COVID-19

A leading trade economist of the country Saturday said people learnt how to tackle the negative impact of disasters like Covid-19.
"The peopleare resilientto cope with the crisis. Before the COVID, in March our economy was in negative trend ridding on many problems including narrow down of our exports and imports figures," Professor Mustafizur Rahman, Distinguished Fellow, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) said as the chief guest while addressing a Virtual Members' Conference on "Impact of COVID 19 on Business - The Bangladesh Perspective".
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB) arranged the event.
ICAB President Muhammad Farooq FCA delivered address of welcome while Dewan Nurul Islam FCA, Past President, ICAB and Managing Director, Grant Thornton Consulting Bangladesh Ltd. presided over the Members' Conference as the Session Chairman.
Dr. Md. SalimUddin FCA, FCMA, CPFA(UK), CIFRS(UK), Member Council, ICAB, Professor of Department of Accounting, University of Chittagong and Chairman, Bangladesh House Building Finance Corporation (BHBFC) & Chairman, Executive Committee of Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd presented the keynote paper.
Professor MustafizurRahman said, during the pandemic millions of people went down below the poverty line. The income, consumption and assets inequality are rising. We are passing the days with a number of problems. If we do not address these problems, our future will be very problematic, he added. Citing the poor capacity of dealing any health crisis, he advised to rethink about the management of our health sector.
He further said, we do not have enough fiscal space to manage the economic crisis during and after the COVID 19. Mentioning the virtual circle of addressing any disaster like COVID, he said we should not depend on banks only for money circular, for which we have to end up with more number of NPL. Such negative trend of NPL will not bring any positive results for our economy, he further said.
ICAB President Muhammad Farooq FCA said, the outbreak of COVID-19 forced Bangladeshi expatriates working in several countries of Middle East, Asia, Europe, Australia, and United States to return home. As a result, a significant disruption in the flow of remittance as well as unemployment problem have been created in the country, he said.
The new normal may come up with changed lifestyle, purchasing behavior and the way of doing business, said Mr Farooq and adding it compelled to rethink the solutions of problems laying foundation for many business ideas and shaping future of e-commerce industry.
He also said, the fight against COVID-19 cannot be carried out by the government alone. It will require an unprecedented level of coordination between the public and private at the local and international level, he suggested.
In the keynote paper learned paper presented Dr. Md. Salim Uddin FCA said, as COVID 19 infection rates appear to be leveling off and the economy is reopening gradually, the business impact of the COVID -19 is becoming increasingly clear. The pandemic engulfing countries around the world has caused massive suffering and loss of life.
To revive the economy, it is more important to be inclusive moving forward together, he suggested. He cited the key findings of a research 'A Global Overview of the Impact of COVID-19 on Businesses' where in April 2020, Sedex received responses from 3,346 businesses in 118 countries. Referring to the research, Dr. Md. Salim Uddin said, garments, footwear and construction sectors were the most hit hard sectors of our economy.
Describing the sectoral impacts of COVID 19 he said , the coronavirus pandemic has had a devastating effect on the Bangladeshi ready-made garment (RMG) industry. According to BGMEA, out of 4,200 factories, 1,143 factories have reported a loss of US $3.17 billion affecting 2.27 million workers due to cancellation of orders to the tune of 980 million pieces, he cited.
He also mentioned that among other sectors, COVID 19 has immense impact on Rural Economy. For which demands in poultry, dairy, fisheries were decreased that led to a drastic price drop in the respective sectors.
On top of that, due to industrial shutdowns, garments workers and urban day labourers have lost their jobs. Consequently, a large number of people with no income source moved from cities to villages which pushed the rural economy at a vulnerable stance, he added.
However, the COVID-19 has caused some changes which bring opportunities and learnings as well. The coronavirus is helping transform key areas of global economy in 5 ways;a more digital economy; demonetisation; global supply chains redrawn; policy reforms; liquidity rush in the capital markets and the nature of jobs.
Over the past six months, business organizations have reorganized supply chains, set up remote operations, and made tough financial decisions. Until COVID-19 vaccine that can be readily distributed the priority is to reenergize organizations- to act rather than react.