Bangladesh-USA agree to strengthen cooperation in dealing with Corona

Staff Reporter : Bangladesh and the United States have expressed their desire to work more closely on the Covid-19 epidemic. The issue was discussed at a meeting between Salman F. Rahman, the prime minister's private industry and investment adviser, and Marcia Bernicat, a senior State Department official on economic growth, energy and the environment, at the State Department in Washington DC on Tuesday (July 27). The meeting was a follow-up to the virtual Bangladesh-US Economic Partnership meeting held on September 30, 2020. The participants of the follow-up meeting expressed satisfaction over the ongoing economic cooperation between the two countries and progress made in the areas of collaboration identified during the 2020 Partnership Meeting. They also underlined the need for remaining engaged through different institutional mechanisms and beyond to further deepen the partnership between the two friendly Governments. The adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on public health as well as the global economy were discussed at length during the meeting. Adviser Rahman thanked the US Government for providing more than 5.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Bangladesh through COVAX. Recalling the two countries’ close cooperation to combat COVID-19 since the early days of the pandemic, Adviser Rahman stressed scaling up of the global production of the COVID-19 vaccines and other pandemic management equipment to tackle the virus. In this regard, he sought the assistance of the US Government to encourage their vaccine-producing companies to partner with capable pharmaceutical companies in Bangladesh. He also stated that Bangladesh is ready to make necessary investments for the capacity enhancement of pharma companies for such partnerships. Ambassador Bernicat appreciated the Bangladesh Government’s efforts to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus in the country and stated that the US would prioritize Bangladesh in its plan for expanding production of PPE as well as COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics. The discussion also covered a range of other issues, including labor rights and safety, cooperation in the areas of energy, climate change, and agriculture, US investment in Bangladesh, technology transfer, and restoring Biman flights from Dhaka to New York. On labor issue, Hon’ble Adviser stated about various new initiatives at the behest of the Hon’ble Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to further improve labor rights and safety in the country. The US side appreciated Bangladesh’s persistent efforts and offered its help to make even more progress in the sector. The US side was also highly appreciative of the Bangladesh Government’s recent move to cancel coal-based power plants. Both sides recognized that the 2020 Economic Partnership Meeting provided momentum to the ongoing collaboration between the two countries and agreed to hold the second round of the meeting later this year. The meeting was also attended by Senior Secretary of Finance Division Mr. Abdur Rouf Talukder, Bangladesh Ambassador to the US M Shahidul Islam, Commerce Secretary Mr. Tapan Kanti Ghosh, ERD Secretary Ms. Fatima Yasmin, and officials of the US Department of State. BP/SM