ZUBAIR QURESHI
The novel coronavirus (Covid-19) caught China by surprise from the very beginning, but China, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese government defeated the deadly virus putting its people’s lives first and ensuring joint efforts, confidence, unity, and struggle. Life now is returning to normalcy and the Chinese people and the government are using their knowledge of the virus to help other nations faced with the same challenge. Deputy Chief of China Mission in Pakistan Pang Chunxue said this while speaking at an online policy dialogue titled “Combating COVID-19: Lessons from China” organized by Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) here on Thursday. Sharing her experiences of last three months, she said Chinese had made some swift actions regarding total lockdown of Hubei province, made useful preventive and controlled measures by persuading people to stay at home convincing them to be socially distant and provided people with daily essentials so that they could stay at home comfortably. Pang Chunxue emphasized that China has paid good attention to the importance of think tanks, their input is very important to governments and the general population. Moreover, she specified that CPEC was in a new stage and that this new stage focuses on the cooperation of China and Pakistan to develop socioeconomic infrastructure, education sector, agriculture sector and also the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Speaking on the occasion Mr. Haroon Sharif Economist, Former Minister of State for Investment stressed the need to focus on future partnerships on human development, that will lead to social and economic prosperity in the region. So far there is some social development under CPEC but not to the extent that is needed, he added. Executive Director SDPI Dr Abid Qaiyum Suleri said our approach in fighting coronavirus was urban-centric; urban dwellers have some sort of health care, but in small towns and villages’ health care was non-existent. “We need to focus on villages, similarly bilateral or multilateral institutions should discuss specific districts or advise them how to cope up the situation. Joint Executive Director, SDPI, Dr Vaqar Ahmed said it was important for the relevant ministries in Islamabad to engage more closely with the foreign missions and embassies and seek guidance for improving Pakistan’s response to COVID-19. “Countries like China, S. Korea and Japan that were among the first to experience incidence of virus can now explain regarding various systematic approaches to lockdown and what are the options in the coming days for a gradual relaxation in lockdown at least for some essential industries such as food and health sector.” Director China Study Centre, SDPI, Shakeel Ahmed Ramay was of the view that institutional mechanism of China was very important to study, how policy and decision making there is being done. “We need some mechanism if we want the desirable results replicated from China,” he said. The session was moderated by Dr. Hina Aslam Associate Research Fellow, SDPI.
