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. |