Bangladesh's event management sector is in dire straits as a lack of work for the past six months amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has led to a serious shortage of capital, according to industry insiders.

"The industry is in trouble following six months without work and there is no scope for business to return to normal by the end of this year," said Doza Alan, general secretary of the Event Management and Marketing Association of Bangladesh (EMMAB).

In a bid to curb the spread of Covid-19 within Bangladesh, the government declared a 10-day nationwide general leave beginning March 26.

However, the general closure of all economic activities was repeatedly extended as the number of coronavirus infections grew throughout the country before ultimately coming to an end on May 30.

"We can't organise any event amid the pandemic since corporate houses are reluctant to hold their scheduled events at this time," Alan said.

The industry is facing revenue losses of up to Tk 1,800 crore this year and could shrink by as much as 90 per cent because of the Covid-19 fallout.

Alan, also the chief executive officer of Skytracker, said his company was forced to reduce the size of its event management team as it could only pay 60 per cent of their salaries due to a lack of revenue.

"Although the country's economic activities are slowly returning to normal, our activities cannot gain momentum at the same pace," he added.

Due to the nature of event planning, which entails the gathering of people at a set location, it is not possible to organise such programmes while maintaining adequate social distancing.

"Currently, the main priority is to protect human life," Alan said, adding that the payment for events held via digital platforms are insufficient to maintain operations.

According to the EMMAB, there are some 300 event management firms in Bangladesh that organise thousands of events throughout the year, creating about 1 lakh opportunities for direct employment in the process.

But in the prevailing circumstance, around one lakh temporary employees have lost their jobs. The EMMAB is yet to conduct an official assessment on the potential losses brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic.

"With no work for the rest of the year as human interaction will be limited, the industry faces dire consequences. We did not get any support from the stimulus packages even though we pay vat and tax to the government," Alan said.

The EMMAB conducts at least Tk 2,000 crore-worth business each year and has been growing by about 5 to 8 per cent year-on-year for the last 10 years, he added.

Sarawar Morhed Azam, managing director of Integrated Marketing Service (IMS), said his business would shrink by 90 per cent this year but to make matters worse, they have no idea when operations would return to normal as it was still uncertain when the pandemic would end.

The IMS organises around 100 large-scale events annually and employs over 100 staff.

"Now we are thinking about adopting digital event planning to bring changes under the 'new normal' situation," Azam added.

According to the managing director, event management companies organise various international conferences, cultural events, social awareness programmes and corporate events but now the industry was totally inactive.

As a result, some smaller firms have already been forced to shut down their operations due to a lack of working capital.

Rashid Khan, chief executive officer of Creato, echoed the same, saying that the service sector has also been seriously affected by the pandemic.

To help the industry survive the Covid-19 fallout, Khan urged the country's banks to provide loan facilities at low interest rates.

Similarly, the EMMAB demanded deferrals on VAT payments and a reduction in advance income tax to help the event management sector pull through.

"We contribute towards business development by providing different ideas and programmes but the current situation is unfavourable for our industry," he said.

Khan also said his company organises at least 150 events each year but this time around, almost 80 per cent of their work had shrivelled up.