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| Friday, 4 February 2005 |
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Scheme to provide soft loans for affected entrepreneurs by Shirajiv Sirimane A US dollar 75 million scheme would be launched by the Ministry of Tourism to provide soft loans to small and medium scale entrepreneurs who were affected by the tsunami on December 26. According to the Secretary Ministry of Tourism, Dr. Prathph Ramanujem, these soft loans would be provided from aid which would be channelled through the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and other donor agencies Dr. Ramanayagam addressing a press conference at the Ministry of Tourism yesterday. He said that at the recently concluded World Tourism Organisation (WTO) emergency executive Committee meeting, many donor agencies too pledged their acquiescence to provide financial assistance for this loan scheme. He also said that they would be formulating a scheme to provide employment opportunities for people who earned their income from tourism. The Secretary said that they had earlier estimated the damage to the local tourism industry to be around US 200 million. "However the damage seems less than that since most of the insurance companies have honoured the claims by the affected hotels," he said. He also said that Sri Lanka was highly praised at the WTO meeting in Phuket Thailand for their transparency for not hiding any of the damage caused by the tsunami. "The SLTB web site too came in for high praise," he said. The visiting , Secretary General of the WTO, Francesco Frangialli said that their body is not a financial countries. "However we would influence the donor agencies including the ADB and the World Bank to provide more aid to Sri Lanka. "In addition we would also arrange to provide technical assistance to Sri Lanka," he said. He said that one of the immediate problems faced in the industry is the loss of employment opportunities for small timers such a taxi drivers, tour guides and small time restaurant owners. "We are planning to conduct a series of professional human resource training programs for industry people who now may be unemployed. Crisis management programs would be conducted. "This is also the time to plan a strategy to reposition the country is image once again," he said. Frangialli also said that the WTO will also make arrangements for Sri Lanka companions participating in international trade fairs to attend them without an entrance fee. "We are also planning to link the Sri Lanka Tourist Board web site to the WTO web page," he said. |
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