China’s Global Times argues that the fragile health systems and economies of India’s neighboring countries, themselves highly dependent upon India’s economy, may be set back twenty years, if they can’t contain the infectious wave of COVID-19 over the next two weeks. Friday’s article, entitled “Economy of India’s neighbors in South and Southeast Asia may need ‘two decades’ to return to pre-pandemic level amid new wave of COVID-19,” cites Hu Zhiyong, a research fellow at Institute of International Relations of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, on the vulnerability of labor-intensive factories in Bangladesh and elsewhere: “It may take 5 to 10 years for South Asian countries’ economies to return to pre-pandemic levels if these countries could control the ongoing wave in two weeks, and if not, their economies may need 20 years to recover.” Hu referred to the China-South Asia emergency supply reserve of vaccines as an example of China’s experience in using the central medical reserves against Covid.
A forward-based vaccine reserve for quick logistical deployment was half of the plan of China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi, announced on 4/27/21, to also establish a China-South Asia “poverty reduction and development cooperation center” - which would apply China’s established capability for wiping out poverty to the region, beginning in the 3rd quarter, 2021.
