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| Sunday, 4 May 2003 |
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Donors will shy away if peace breaks down - World Bank MD by Elmo Leonard In the event of a breakdown in Sri Lanka's peace process, effective from February last year, international donor agencies would be reluctant to fund the many projects identified by them for funding in the future, warned IFC's Executive Vice President, and Managing Director of the World Bank, Peter Woicke, who is on a short visit to Sri Lanka. Country director for the World Bank in Sri Lanka, Peter Harold commenting on the same matter, said that peace and economic policy of donor agencies go hand in hand. It is very significant that peace and stability is maintained in the North and East of Sri Lanka which was the theatre of a 20-year civil conflict, if envisaged international assistance is to be granted. Harold, said that even if peace broke down, World Bank would continue to fund other projects, like the poverty alleviation schemes, planned for the Moneragala and Hambantota districts, in the deep south of Sri Lanka. The two WB executives made these remarks in answer to queries from mediapersons, who said that it was apparent from recent manoeuvre of the LTTE that the Tigers wanted to disrupt the international donor conference scheduled to be held in June, in Tokyo, where Sri Lanka is expected to receive around $1.4 billion in assistance; much of which is for the reconstruction of the North and East. Peter Woicke, said that that question had two aspects to it. One was that countries have to create their own stability if they are to enjoy the status of favourable funding from international donor agencies, more than they had at times of conflict. The other aspect, was that donors, no matter what happens within a nation, care for disadvantaged people. "Big money will come in, if governments could create favourable conditions," he stressed. Private, or foreign direct investment into the country would be at a loss to come in; private investors do not like volatility and politics, Woicke said. IFC is the private sector arm of the World Bank and the largest multilateral provider of loans and equity in the emerging markets. |
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