ADB agrees to lend $ 3 b says Ravi K

Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake with ADB President Takehiko Nakao during their meeting in Frankfurt, Germany last week on the sidelines of ADB's 2016 Annual Meeting

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has agreed to provide a loan of $ 3 billion to Sri Lanka for infrastructure development, Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake disclosed yesterday.

The ADB has also granted an allocation of $200 million for the development of the Small and Medium Entrepreneurs (SME) sector.

The loan facility has been given under a concessionary interest rate and will be provided to Sri Lanka over the next three years. The loan agreement was reached during the 49th ADB Finance Minister’s summit held in Frankfurt, last week at which Finance Minister Ravi Karunanyake represented Sri Lanka. The loan facility will be utilised to implement some of the main development projects in the country and will be channeled to develop new rail ways, port development, electricity distribution network, and highways and transportation systems. 

Annually ADB lends Sri Lanka about $ 400-500 million, however this loan is in excess to this annual amount.

Minister Karunanayake said that the ADB had decided to grant the above after being impressed by Sri Lanka›s future plans to spur economic development spearheaded by President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The Minister said that the ADB had not only consented to grant Sri Lanka an enhanced loan amount but had also decided to make the facility available on a concessionary rate.

The Frankfurt summit was attended by 67 Finance Ministers and over 3000 experts in related fields. This year’s theme for the summit was «Cooperating for Sustainability».