A foreign tourist walks past an elephant ahead of a religious procession in Colombo on March 1, 2018. AFP
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) lending for Sri Lanka would see a significant increase of up to USD 600-800 million this year, says ADB Director General for South Asia Hun Kim. The average annual ADB lending for Sri Lanka in the last three years had been USD 300 million.
Speaking to South Asian Journalists at the 51st ADB Board of Governors’ Annual Meeting 2018 at the ADB Headquarters in Mandaluyong City in Manila yesterday, Hun Kim said Sri Lanka was one of the countries benefiting from the capital increase of the ADB.”
The ADB’s lending for Sri Lanka this year will be USD 600-800 million, which is very big for the size of 20 million population of the country. Sri Lanka is one country we think should really grow.
Three years ago, we were all talking about Sri Lanka emerging as ‘new star of South Asia’ because it has all the necessary ingredients. It is not happening because there are not enough foreign investments and the exports are going down,” the Director General said while stressing that the Sri Lankan Government must have a longer term vision to be in the new engine of growth and to bring its economic growth up.
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“But that would not be possible in traditional ways. That is why the ADB is working on an Economic Corridor, Special Economic Zones and port-based development.
With them, the country can find some new engine of growth. Long term investments must be focused on, but that can only come when Government has a vision for the future more than five years. When everybody is focusing on elections it would be difficult,” he added.
