Shifting Sideways

The Asian Development Bank has reallocated US$ 7 mn from a Rural Finance Sector Development Project in Sri Lanka to provide emergency microcredit to tsunami affected people in the country.



The Asian Development Bank has reallocated US$ 7 mn from a Rural Finance Sector Development Project in Sri Lanka to provide emergency microcredit to tsunami affected people in the country. In the first ADB post-tsunami response after the joint preliminary needs assessment carried out by ADB, the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and the World Bank and published at the start of February, the reallocation will expedite the flow of needed funds to poor and low income tsunami affected households.

Three loans totaling US$ 70 mn were approved by ADB in December 2003 for the Rural Finance Sector Development Program (RFSDP) to establish a sustainable system for enhancing access to rural and microfinance services.

Under the project, a US$ 10 mn line of credit to support microenterprise sub-loans of up to about US$ 1,000 each was being disbursed through microfinance institutions. Some US$ 7 mn of this line of credit will be reallocated to help tsunami affected households.

"The realloca