BEIJING, July 31 (INP): Chinese scholar Prof. Cheng Xizhong said, that Pakistan, China’s friendly neighbor will eventually win the war against the pandemic and embark on a path of economic recovery. 

In an article published by Gwadar Pro on Friday, he said the smart-lock down in Pakistan has brought good result.    

Recently, Pakistan has set a revenue target of 4.963 trillion Rupees for the fiscal year 2020-2021. There is a prerequisite for this revenue target that is the economy will have basically recovered from COVID-19 by October 1. He quoted the relevant departments of the Federal government as having said that if the pandemic cannot be controlled before the end of September, it will be difficult to achieve the revenue target, and then the budget may have to be adjusted. Cheng Xizhong who is visiting professor at Southwest University of Political Science and Law, senior fellow of the Charhar Institute was of the pinion that it is quite difficult for Pakistan to achieve this revenue target, unless the federal government and the people of Pakistan have the determination to devote themselves to pandemic prevention and control and economic recovery.

He added: “There is an idiom in China, "Nothing is impossible", which means that under certain conditions, whether things can be done mainly depends on how people play their subjective initiative. Pakistan is densely populated, with a high proportion of poor people and a large number of daily-income labors. So, it is difficult to impose a complete lockdown.

So, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has launched the strategy of "smart lockdown", and the relevant government departments have formulated a series of standard operation procedures for pandemic prevention.  

Judged from the current situation, this strategy has achieved initial good results. The data show that the growth curve of confirmed cases tends to gradually level off, with more than 81% of confirmed cases recovered.   With the advent of the Corban Festival, PM has called on the people to celebrate simply and abide by the standard operating procedures for pandemic prevention. If COVID-19 can be controlled well during the festival, it will help Pakistan rebuild economic growth in an orderly manner, so the economic development will become normal.

Due to the appropriate policies of the government to respond COVID-19, the people of all walks of life have been making concerted efforts to overcome various economic difficulties.   

There is a saying in the investment circle that "Profit and loss are from the same source", which means that the reason for which you make money and lose money is likely to be the same. The catering industry, retail industry and tourism industry are the most hit ones by the COVID-19. These industries will surely take the lead in recovery, once the pandemic is over.   

The reason is very simple. Due to the COVID-19, many cities have adopted close-off management. If it is over, people may rush out to enjoy delicious food in restaurants, experience offline shopping and travel to other places or foreign countries. The flow of people and logistics will drive the recovery of the transportation industry, so I think the transport industry will also be among the first batch of industries to recover.” INP/JAVED