Sri Lanka gets World Bank loans for small business, tourism

Nov 08, 2010 (LBO) - The World Bank said it will give Sri Lanka 125.4 million US dollars for three projects to support Small and Medium Enterprises, tourism and local service improvements in the former north-east war zone. "The three projects will help Sri Lanka reap maximum benefits of the peace dividend and make further progress towards becoming a Middle Income Country, Amit Dar, acting World Bank Country Director for Sri Lanka said in a statement.

The credits from the International Development Association, the World Bank’s concessionary lending arm, have 20 years to maturity with a 10-year grace period.

Sri Lanka will get 57.4 million dollars to improve access to finance for Sri Lankan SMEs affected by the Global Financial Crisis.

"The project aims to incentivize banks to provide credit to SMEs while building their SME lending capability over time, said Cecile Niang, Economist, World Bank and Task Team Leader of the project.

Fifty million dollars will be given to help improve provision of services to citizens by local authorities in the north and east regions, which are recovering after the island's 30-year ethnic war ended in May 2009.

"This project will support repairing and rebuilding