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| Saturday, 01 January 2005 |
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COLOMBO, Friday, The World Bank Friday said it was allocating 100 million dollars to Sri Lanka out of an immediate budget of 250 million dollars for nations devastated by the tsunamis. The bank said it was initially making up the 100 million dollars available by re-allocating funds from existing programs and possibly through emergency credits and grants. "This will be a combination of new credits and re-allocation of funds from ongoing projects," a bank spokesman said, adding that it was part of the previously announced 250 million dollar World Bank budget set aside for all affected countries. Sri Lanka, Indonesia and the Maldives had asked for help from the bank. "Sri Lanka is proportionately perhaps the worst hit of all the affected countries, as a large portion of the country was affected and the bulk of the population lives on the coast," the bank's country director for Sri Lanka, Peter Harrold, told AFP. President Chandrika Kumaratunga announced Thursday that the collateral damage was less than feared and placed the reconstruction cost at less than a billion dollars. Meanwhile, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said Friday it was making 325 million dollars immediately available to countries ravaged by a massive earthquake and tidal waves that killed almost 125,000 in the region. The allocation was in response to requests from Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Maldives for help to finance reconstruction and rehabilitation work after the deadly tsunamis on Sunday. About 175 million dollars already allocated for these three countries for other operations would be reprogrammed for reconstruction and relief efforts, the ADB said in a statement from its headquarters in the Philippine capital. Another 150 million dollars in soft loans would also be made available, the bank said. "This is an unprecedented disaster and we are moving quickly to assist those countries in their hour of need," ADB president Tadao Chino was quoted as saying. This immediate funding was only an initial contribution, the ADB said, adding that more resources would be made available as ADB teams assessed what was needed and as affected governments and communities identified longer term priorities. ADB teams are already in place to identify high priority operations for reconstruction work that must get under way during the next six months, the bank said. |
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