Eighty seven per cent of US$ 80 m Japanese assistance used

With reference to the story headlined 'most of Japan's tsunami aid remains untouched' which appeared on the front page yesterday, the Japanese Embassy said the US $ 80 million grant aid was utilised in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance and Planning and in consultation with the line Ministries/agencies concerned where a very speedy, transparent and participatory process was followed.

A similar procedure was followed for the Maldives as well. As at December 5, US $ 70 million (87%) and US $ 16 million (18%) of the grant assistance have been utilised by Sri Lanka and the Maldives respectively. The remainder of the grant assistance has already been committed for already agreed projects that are due to be launched prior to the end of 2005, the Embassy said.

Nearly US $ 82 million and US $ 22 million grant assistance were provided to Sri Lanka and the Maldives respectively, where a large part of the assistance have already been utilised by both and the balance remains committed for implementation of projects already agreed.

As a part of the emergency assistance, the Japanese Government provided tents, blankets, water tanks, generators etc to the value of US $ 296,000 and US $ 76,000 to Sri Lanka and the Maldives respectively.

Japan also dispatched two relief medical teams to Sri Lanka and one medical team to the Maldives. In view of assisting the respective government in meeting the cost of relief needs US $ 1 million and US $ 510,000 were also provided to Sri Lanka and the Maldives. In addition, Japan's rehabilitation and reconstruction package included US $ 80 million to Sri Lanka and US $ 20 million respectively provided under its non-project grant assistance scheme.

In the case of Sri Lanka the grant have been fully utilised where the construction of 14 schools, six police stations, nine bridges and causeways have commenced, while freezer trucks, cold storage facilities, a variety of fishing boats and gear, gully suckers, generators, provision of medical equipment, diagnostic mobile medical units, vehicles for district and divisional administration etc. provided for restoring the affected areas and the lives of the people.

Preliminary work has also commenced on 3 Japan-Sri Lanka Housing Villages in Trincomalee and Ampara districts which are due to be completed by early 2006.

The Japanese Government also provided about US $ 10 million yen loan towards the Sri Lanka Tsunami Affected Area Recovery and Takeoff Project (STAART) to be utilised towards tsunami relief programmes such as infrastructure rehabilitation and revival of small business.

This was aimed at long-term rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts in the country.

The assistance provided was strictly in line with the needs identified by the Sri Lanka Government and targeted the people in the South, North and East.

The progress of utilisation of the assistance has been very satisfactory when compared to the amount of assistance provided and the diversity of the assistance provided.