Re-opening the Bangladesh economy: search for a framework using a riskimportance space

The novel coronavirus has infected more than 50 million people worldwide. Countries that have been on lockdown for more than three months have partially started to reopen their economies, including Bangladesh. This study aims to assess the reopening policies in Bangladesh by mapping the economic sectors in a risk-importance space and using that to develop a phased reopening strategy. This study conducted 100 expert interviews to identify sectors critical to the reopening of the economy and sectors that carry high transmission risks of the disease. The convenience sampling and snowball method were applied to reach the economic sector experts. Quadrant analysis was applied to classify sectors according to their importance to the economy and propensity to spread the disease. Pharmaceuticals and grocery have been identified as allowed sectors due to their contribution to the economy but pose relatively less risk of spreading COVID-19, whereas RMG and other exports identify as alert sectors. Based on findings, a sector-based, three-phase reopening strategy has been proposed for the economy that might prevent the spreading of COVID-19. The proposed framework can act as a guiding principle for any country to offer a step by step reopening strategy.