Aid cuts will hit the poor: Foreign Secretary

COLOMBO: Any suspension of Western aid would not make Sri Lanka bankrupt, but it would certainly hit the poor in the rural areas, Foreign Secretary Dr Palitha Kohona told Hindustan Times.

“Aid commitments from these countries are not huge. Japan, China and India give much more. But the European aid is targeted, and the projects to which they are tied, are meant to benefit poor villages, the poor farmer,” Kohona said.

“Sri Lanka will not go bankrupt if it is denied British aid of 1.4 million pounds sterling.

But the poor in the villages, waiting for a water supply scheme or a project of that sort, will be hit directly and instantly,” he pointed out.

Minister, G.L. Peiris, had recently appealed to the West not to stop aid to his country as that would only affect the poor.