DUBAI — Basundhara Group, the largest diversified industrial conglomerate in Bangladesh, will convert all of its four convention centers located at the International Convention City in Dhaka to a cluster of 5,000-bed hospital to help combat the Coronavirus health crisis.

Ahmed Akbar Sobhan, chairman of Basundhara Group, said, “With the global outbreak of the deadly Coronavirus, it is important for the private sector to join hands with the government and intensify efforts to overcome the crisis.

“We are offering all our facilities and resources at our disposal at the International Convention City to convert them into makeshift hospitals to test and treat patients so that this could be contained.

“So far, Bangladesh has showed tremendous success in fighting the virus with minimum infection and casualty. However, it is important to scale up capacity so that the country remains better prepared for the increase in infection rate.

“Despite our best hopes and efforts, the crisis might not subside in a matter of days or weeks. Unless we prepare ourselves and guard our country — this virus might penetrate in some form or shape in our country — unless it is completely eliminated from every nook and corner of the world. This might be a very difficult task and might take more than months.”

Basundhara Group, which has business operations in the Gulf region, has also donated Tk100 million ($11.76 million) to Bangladesh government to fight the deadly virus outbreak which has caused five deaths so far.

Basundhara Group Managing Director Sayem Sobhan Anvir handed over the check of Taka100 million to Dr. Ahmed Kaikaus, principal secretary to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Anvir said, “This is just a token of our support to the efforts of Bangladesh government in combating the crisis and we want to widen our scope of partnership in this fight by opening up all our resources to set up a 5,000-bed hospital that will play a crucial role in saving valuable lives.

“As a private sector business group, we are proud to support our people and I take this opportunity to congratulate the government and the people of Bangladesh for a very low infection rate so far. However, with Coronavirus, one cannot predict how things might turn in the coming weeks and months. It is important to be prepared and be ready, than be sorry.”

The Group which employs more than 50,000 professionals across 20 industries and companies spread across Bangladesh, has an asset base of Tk500 billion ($5.88 billion).

It is currently developing the largest oil refinery in Bangladesh that will meet the growing demand for refined oil, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), furnace oil and aviation jet fuel — most of which are currently imported.