Minister concludes successful Washington tour

Finance Minister Dr. Sarath Amunugama who met World Bank President James Wolfensohn in Washington on Monday discussed the mechanisms in place to implement the country's tsunami reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts and the Development Forum of Donors to be held in Kandy in mid May 2005.

The Minister also expressed Sri Lanka's appreciation for Wolfensohn's personal involvement in assisting Sri Lanka's recovery efforts. The World Bank President stated that the model of making disbursements through the banking system, which has worked well in Sri Lanka, could be adopted in other similar World Bank projects as well.

Minister Amunugama, who was in Washington to attend the G-24, IMFC (International Monetary and Financial Committee) and Development Committee (DC) meetings of the IMF and World Bank, concluded his six day visit, receiving assurances of support from senior officials of the two multilateral aid agencies as well as a number of friendly countries.

Deputy Managing Director of the IMF Takatoshi Kato, congratulated the visiting Minister for the success of the immediate relief effort in the aftermath of tsunami. Kato also indicated that the IMF would help the Government in its efforts to ensure economic stability and growth.

Minister Amunugama expressed the gratitude of the Government for assistance of the IMF provided through US $110 million as deferment of debt repayment and another US$ 158 million granted under the Emergency Natural Disaster Assistance (ENDA) facility.

The Minister informed Vice President, South Asia Region of the World Bank Praful Patel that the revised Poverty Reduction Strategy Programme (PRSP) would be finalised in the coming weeks.

Minister Amunugama also held several bilateral discussions with his counterparts in his tour. Discussions with Indian Finance Minister P. Chidambaram focused on the growing economic ties between the two countries in the context of the Indo-Lanka Free Trade Agreement. Chidambaram assured the Indian Government's continued support for Sri Lanka and indicated that the ongoing policy dialogue would be intensified.

Meanwhile, the Under Secretary for Finance of the Federal Republic of Germany, Caio Koch Weser requested the Minister to convey special needs identified in the reconstruction and rehabilitation phase to the German Minister of Development for further assistance.

The Ministers meeting with the Deputy Finance Minister of Japan Hiroshi Watanabe focused on Sri Lanka's existing strong bilateral relations and the need to further enhance trade relations between the two countries.

During his stay in Washington Minister Amunugama also met with Representative Jerry Weller, (R-Illinois) and Representative Joseph Crowley (D- New York). The Minister urged the support of the Congress in securing special trade concessions particularly for Sri Lanka's apparel exports to the US, that would help the Sri Lankan economy in this hour of crisis.

Meeting Chief Executive Officer of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Paul Applegarth, Dr. Amunugama discussed moving forward on the present Sri Lanka MCC Concept Paper focusing on development of the rural sector.