China unhappy over disclosure of Sinopharm vaccine price in Bangladesh

GBNEWS24 DESK//

Despite the existence of a condition of maintaining secrecy in the agreement, China has expressed strong resentment against Bangladesh over disclosing the price of Sinopharm vaccine.

However, Bangladesh has instantly expressed regret claiming its ‘unavoidable mistake.’

Prof. Dr. ABM Khurshid Alam, Director General of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) under the Ministry of Health has already sent a letter to the Chinese authorities concerned explaining details.

However, the DGHS is yet to receive any reply to its letter.

In such a situation, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen has expressed concern about receiving Sinopharm vaccine from China at $10 a dose.

He said uncertainty looms over receiving Chinese vaccine at $10 per dose.

The Bangladesh government has signed an agreement with China to purchase 1.5 crore Covid-19 vaccine doses from Chinese National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm).

It has already received five lakh shots of the Sinopharm vaccine from China as a gift. Administered the Sinopharm vaccine started from May 25.

The government also signed a non-disclosure agreement with its Chinese counterpart on purchasing Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine.

On May 27, the Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase approved a proposal for buying 1.5 crore doses of Sinopharm’s vaccine. Purchasing a total of 1.5 crore vaccine doses will cost Tk 1,267 crore, said a source at the Ministry of Finance.

Immediately after the meeting a Cabinet Division official told reporters at a briefing that Dhaka was purchasing the vaccine at $10 per dose.

However, as the news spread online through different media outlets, the finance ministry officials contested the disclosure, saying that the price was not approved yet.

A finance ministry official sent a text to the messenger group of reporters covering the ministry, requesting the media not to mention the price for the “greater interest of the country”.

Health Minister Zahid Maleque also declined to disclose the price of the vaccine.

However, the Embassy of China in Dhaka conveyed strong reaction when the matter came to its attention. Later, Dhaka expressed its regret to Beijing. But, it did not yield any result. Now, Bangladesh is unlikely to receive Sinopharm vaccine at $10 per dose.

According to the agreement, Bangladesh is scheduled to receive 50 lakh doses of Sinopharm vaccines each month of June, July and August this year.