COVID-19: The pandemic to lead and work through together
“This is like a world war, except in this case, we’re all on the same side.”
Quoting the tech tycoon Bill Gates about the extent of damage the virus is creating to health, wealth and well-being.
From the beginning of this crisis, every country is effectively working to minimize the virus spread, limiting travel, imposing lockdown for months, testing and treating patients and cancelling social gathering even in the festivals. Then again, predicting the impact of this deadly virus is not an easy task for a developing country like Bangladesh, a densely populated country with a not-so-developed healthcare system.
From economy front, the country is having a hard time due to prolonged lock down and disrupted supply chain situation for most of the industries, apart from a handful industries for instance, grocery, and pharmaceuticals. Construction sector is facing the heat as the progression of mega projects slowed down. Banking sector is in a tight spot due to halting of private sector credit disbursement, reduction in settlement/opening of new LC and borrowers’ inability to pay EMI. However, digital payment solution might be the one good thing came out of this pandemic, where starting from social safety net disbursement to RMG workers’ wage disbursement – all happened in Mobile Financial Service (MFS) platform. As tough this situation as is for the business communities, stimulus packages declared by the government is likely to come to a relief.
The year 2020 is deemed to be game-changer in wake of this pandemic. The way of our approach to health, business, commute and every small details will be reshaped, like after every pandemic in the past. The post-pandemic world will need a lot of collaboration from our countrymen to start from the start.
Sushmita Saha
Assistant Manager
IDLC Finance Limited