Aid boosts economy
*Foreign reserves reach US $ 6 b:
*Approx US $ 1.56 b aid received:
Lakshmi DE SILVA
Sri Lanka’s economy has bounced back to more than normal with foreign
reserves and foreign aid rising to an unprecedented high after the
defeat of terrorism, Export Development and Foreign Trade Minister Prof.
G.L.Peiris said.
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Minister Peiris |
“Our foreign reserves stand at 6 billion US Dollars today while aid
from China, India, Japan and Korea as well as the Asian Development Bank
has brought in a very large amount of foreign exchange to the country,”
he said.
Addressing the weekly Cabinet press briefing at the Information
Department Auditorium, Prof Peiris said all these gains were made
possible by the high threshold of confidence Sri Lanka had created.
He said China has given 488 million US Dollars aid, India 145 million
US Dollars, Japan 311 million US Dollars and ADB 283 million US Dollars
while the World Bank has given 202 million US Dollars aid.
These include the aid provided to the Maththala International Airport
funded by the People’s Republic of China and the Colombo Matara railway
line funded by the Indian government. The World Bank is also giving
another 18 million US Dollars for infrastructure development to promote
sustainable tourism repayable in 20 years with a grace period of ten
years and was interest free credit.
Cabinet gave its approval for obtaining the loan. In addition Export
Import Bank has given 40 million US Dollars for the development of roads
in the Hatton-Nuwara Eliya regions, at almost negligible 0.1 percent
interest rate repayable in 40 years with a grace period of 10 years.
The Minister said Sri Lanka has aroused interest among the
international community about how the rural sector infrastructure was
developed while fighting a terrorist war and also achieving prosperity
at grassroots level in the rural sector, construction of 4,000
kilometres of rural roads and bringing down poverty level from 24 to 15
percent. |
