Support for infrastructure-led growth, lagging regions, and high quality service delivery is the focus of the World Bank Group’s Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) for
The envisaged lending package of US$900 million for the Sri Lanka CAS was endorsed by the World Bank’s Executive Director at a meeting on June 5.
The CAS is aligned with Mahinda Chintana, the Government’s 10-year economic development framework which aims at accelerating growth, with particular emphasis on equitable development.
The strategy is focused on three objectives.
The first is to expand economic opportunities in lagging regions to achieve more balanced growth by supporting rehabilitation of roads, irrigation networks, and water supply.
Second, the CAS centers on improving the investment climate and competitiveness to encourage private sector investments and growth.
The third objective is to enhance quality services and accountability to improve education, health, social safety nets, and environmental protection.
A substantive share of the resources during this CAS period is devoted to roads, particularly the provincial roads to improve inter connectivity among regions to facilitate faster development in the lagging regions”.
The design of the CAS is based on extensive consultations both with the Government and with a broad cross-section of Sri Lankan society across many parts of the country.“
The assistance strategy aims to sustain the impressive poverty reduction that
“The CAS is designed to deliver positive development outcomes in poor and underserved areas, including the conflict – affected North and the East.”
The CAS will systematically ensure conflict sensitivity in design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of’ Bank-funded activities.
The aim is to encourage members of different ethnic group to work together around common goals in community driven development initiatives,
The CAS also notes the importance of enhancing macroeconomic stability for achieving higher long term economic growth and for enabling
The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Bank Group’s private sector arm, plays an important role in the Bank’s strategy by providing long-term financing and business advice for Sri Lankan companies.
During this CAS implementation period, IFC will increasingly reach out to second-tier, smaller clients and help develop the domestic financial market, In addition, the IFC will continue to provide advisory services through the South-Fast Asia Enterprise Development Facility, a five-year, multi-donor trust find established especially for this purpose.
The credits are from the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank’s concessionary lending arm, and have 20 years to maturity with a 10-year grace period and zero interest.
