WB will respond to Lanka's emerging needs - WB Country Director

Ravi LADDUWAHETTY

World Bank Country Director for Sri Lanka and the Maldives Dr. Ms Naoko Ishii said that the Bank's Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) for Sri Lanka will respond to the current needs and the emerging opportunities.

The World Bank Country Director was addressing the 19th Business for Peace Forum of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Sri Lanka at the JAIC Hilton on Thursday night. The Forum theme was Post-Conflict Development of Sri Lanka: Role of the World Bank.

She said that the World Bank, in formulating the CAS for Sri Lanka made extensive consultations not only with the Government of Sri Lanka but also with a cross section of the society across many parts of the island.

"A single most important fact that needs thinking is how to deal with the conflict in the context with the development we intended to do", she said. She also pointed out that the developed community had struggled whether it should be best to wait until a stable peace is ushered or whether it was indeed possible to go ahead with development efforts while there was an ongoing armed conflict.

Commenting on the element of risk, she said that the World Bank believes that this CAS responded to the country's current needs and that the Bank had also taken into consideration the uncertainties and risk element. The rigourous implementation of a conflict sensitive approach including using of the World Bank's Conflict Filter will help mitigating the risk of fuelling the conflict on the ground.

But to do the effective development work, we need to get project implementing be safe and secure, she noted.

She also stressed that how the World Bank funded projects could create an environment for business people in the North and the East. "We are also informed by the people on the ground that the business environment is not conducive enough yet with many constraints ranging of security issues, lack of access to finance and physical infrastructure with poor administration capacity.

The business is the engine of growth and development and linking communities to small scale business sectors through bank funded projects is one of our goals, she said.