World Bank Vice President for South Asia Region visits Sri Lanka to discuss development priorities
The World Bank Vice President for the South Asia Region Hartwig Schafer has arrived in Sri Lanka on his first visit to the country to gain a better understanding of its development priorities and how the Bank can continue to support its critical reform agenda.
“Sri Lanka has made good progress in reducing poverty and ranks the highest in South Asia in terms of human capital development,” Schafer has said. “To continue its journey towards a high middle-income country and create more quality jobs for its people, Sri Lanka needs to continue focusing on better fiscal health, boosting its competitiveness as a tourism, logistics and IT hub and managing climate change risks. The World Bank will continue to provide its best expertise to support Sri Lanka’s future growth.”
During his three-day visit, Schafer is scheduled to meet President Maithripala Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and senior government officials including the Minister of Finance Mangala Samaraweera, State Minister of Finance Eran Wickramaratne, the Mayor of Colombo Rosy Senanayake and the Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka Dr. Indrajith Coomaraswamy.
OSL take:
The World Bank Vice President for the South Asia Region is visiting Sri Lanka to gain further knowledge on the country’s development agenda. The Bank and its subsidiaries have already pumped in large amounts of monies for development projects covering several key economic sectors. Further improving the discussion between the World Bank and the Sri Lankan government would result in the further increase in development assistance to the island nation. This is an encouraging sign for foreign businesses/investors keen in doing business with Sri Lanka since the interest shown by multinational lending agencies would help secure funding for large scale projects.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/14022019/Z_2 |