The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will allocate $2.97 billion as lending for Sri Lanka for the 2016-2018 period. The highest allocation of 19% is for energy sector followed by education (16%).
Tadateru Hayashi, ADB Senior Country Economist speaking at the launching of 'Development Effectiveness Brief' said that one of the main aims of this lending is to allow Sri Lanka to avoid the middle-income trap.
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| ADB Lending summery in $ millions |
The focus areas in the transport sector includes the key arterial national road links, improvement of provincial and rural roads and improved road connectivity in most of the conflict- affected areas.
Focus areas in the energy sector are, renewable energy development, energy-efficiency improvement, transmission and distribution system improvement and also the improving energy access for lagging regions.
The ADB's focus on education sector includes, second generation reform, creating multiple pathways and linkages and most importantly focus on science and technology.
Country Director Sri Lanka for ADB, Sri Widowathi speaking to Daily News Business said that since Sri Lanka is in the higher middle income country category it needs to improve on its revenue. "Sri Lanka should also focus more on research and development and invocations. Another area the country should focus on is the IT sector.Sri Lanka should also look and study the demand on the global value chain and try to fill 'voids' created from it," she said.
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She also said that the ADB President Takehiko Nakao would be in Sri Lanka this week.
ADB established in 1966 approved the first project loan to Sri Lanka in 1968 for US $ 2 million.
This was only the second loan approved by the ADB. Over the years ADB has funded agriculture, industry, infrastructure, and education projects. As of July 2015, ADB the largest donor to Sri Lanka had approved a total of 194 loans, both sovereign and non sovereign, to Sri Lanka with cumulative lending of $7.06 billion.
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