WB endorses US$ 900 m for Lanka

Broad development envisaged under Country Assistance Strategy:

COLOMBO: The World Bank has endorsed a lending package of US$900 million under the Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) for Sri Lanka for the period July 2008 to June 2011.

The envisaged lending package for the Sri Lanka CAS was endorsed by the World Bank’s Executive Directors at a recent meeting.

“The CAS is aligned with Mahinda Chintana, the Government’s 10-year economic development framework which aims at accelerating growth, with particular emphasis on equitable development,” the World Bank said in a statement yesterday.

The strategy is focused on three objectives: The first is to expand economic opportunities in lagging regions to achieve more balanced growth by supporting rehabilitation of roads, irrigation networks, and water supply.

Second, the CAS centres on improving the investment climate and competitiveness to encourage private sector investments and growth.

The third objective is to enhance quality services and accountability to improve education, health, social safety nets, and environmental protection.

A substantive share of the resources during this CAS period is devoted to roads, particularly the provincial roads to improve inter connectivity among regions to facilitate faster development in the lagging regions.

The design of the CAS is based on extensive consultations both with the Government and with a broad cross-section of Sri Lankan society across many parts of the country.

The assistance strategy aims to sustain the impressive poverty reduction that Sri Lanka has achieved the last five years, said Naoko Ishii, World Bank Country Director for Sri Lanka. The CAS is designed to deliver positive development outcomes in poor and undeserved areas, including the conflict-affected North and the East.

The CAS also notes the importance of enhancing macroeconomic stability for achieving higher long term economic growth and for enabling Sri Lanka to better meet the challenges of the recent steep increase in international commodity prices.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Bank Group’s private sector arm, plays an important role in the Bank’s strategy by providing long-term financing and business advice for Sri Lankan companies.

During this CAS implementation period, IFC will increasingly reach out to second-tier, smaller clients and help develop the domestic financial market. In addition, the IFC will continue to provide advisory services through the South-East Asia Enterprise Development Facility, a five-year, multi-donor trust fund established especially for this purpose.