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| Tuesday, 18 January 2005 |
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by Uditha Kumarasinghe World nations have rallied to grant nearly US $ 400 million to the Government of Sri Lanka to rebuild the areas devastated by recent tsunami tidal wave catastrophe, Treasury Secretary Dr. P.B. Jayasundera told a media briefing yesterday. He said the ADB has agreed to grant a sum of US $ 100 million while the World Bank has also pledged US $ 100 million to the Government only for this year. In addition, the Indian Government has pledged US $ 23 million. The Japanese Government will also provide another US $ 150 million to the Government towards the rebuilding exercise. The Government will sign an agreement in this regard with Japanese Government before March. Therefore, altogether the Government has so far received nearly US $ 400 million from donor countries in the aftermath of the tsunami devastation. "However there is a possibility of obtaining nearly US $ 700 million during this year," Dr. Jayasundera revealed. Meanwhile, the Japanese Government yesterday signed an agreement with the Sri Lankan Government pledging to grant a sum of Rs. 8 billion under its Non-Project Grant Aid program to the Government for relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts in tsunami affected areas. Japanese Ambassador Akio Suda and Dr. Jayasundera signed the Exchange of Notes on behalf of the two Governments at the Finance Ministry. The Treasury Secretary said the IMF has also approved a sum of US $ 250 million as debt relief to the Government. Therefore the Government hopes to obtain approximately a sum of US $ 500 million as foreign debt relief for the budget. Meanwhile, world nations have so far donated a huge quantums of material and other technical assistance to the Government. Following the tsunami disaster, international monetary organisations have also pledged to write off the country's foreign debt. The World Bank, IMF, ADB and several individual countries have agreed to provide nearly US $ 500 million as debt relief to the Government, he said. "The reconstruction plan will include a large number of township projects, two or three major highways, one major railway modernisation program and projects to end the entire completion of the fisheries sector and modernisation of education and health facilities. The total cost of these projects will be US $ 1.5 billion. Of this the Government's estimates for this year will be US $ 500 million for these projects," he said. Dr. Jayasundera said with foreign aid pouring in the country, the value of rupee has been increased against the dollar. "Therefore, we should undertake the implementation of more economic development activities within the next three years to further increase the value of the rupee. |
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