China type lockdown urged

LAHORE: Pakistan China Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCJCCI) has stressed the implementation of strict lockdown during Eid holidays and following China’s method and techniques to fight against the third wave of COVID-19, a statement said on Tuesday.

PCJCCI President S M Naveed said that China’s rigorous lockdowns may have initially struck observers as harsh and restrictive, the official data one year on appears to justify the measures, with a comparatively low death toll and caseload.

China has had 100,000 recorded infections, with only around 4,800 deaths linked to COVID-19 and that is just because of the methods they adopted to get rid of this pandemic, he said.

While much of the world scrambles to prevent new waves of coronavirus from stalling the fragile recovery from recession, China’s economy seems to be hitting its stride.

The shock of the pandemic has reinforced the trend towards digitisation and innovation investment in China and its accelerated impact has been gradually unleashed with the economy going back to normal, Naveed added.

PCJCCI Senior Vice President Daud Ahmed said that China’s third-quarter GDP growth went up 4.9 percent from a year ago, bringing the growth for the first three quarters of the year to 0.7 percent year-on-year with imports increasing 13.2 percent and exports rising 9.9 percent from a year ago.

The pandemic has severely hit developed countries, causing a steep reduction in the degree of their centrality in trade networks, but has not affected the central position of China, he said, adding that after Wuhan, Shenzhen is now an innovation and technology hub centered on digital connectivity, innovation and entrepreneurship, and tech talent exchange and development.

PCJCCI Vice President Khalid Raffique Choudhry said that the Chinese counterparts were constantly helping us to fight this deadliest wave of COVID-19 but there is a dire need to learn and implement China’s techniques and plan to cope with this pandemic and to stabilise the economy.

The methods used in China should be strictly followed in the coming week at least, because it will definitely lower down the ratio of the COVID-19 cases.

“To stabilise Pakistan’s economy, we should cooperate with the government by following the proper SOPs of lockdown,” he added.