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| Sunday, 16 January 2005 |
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Loans to small and medium entrepreneurs The Government will shortly introduce two loan schemes to help small and medium entrepreneurs affected by the tsunami disaster, Central Bank Governor Sunil Mendis told a representative gathering of private and public sector entities that was convened by the Centre for National Operations (CNO) last Wednesday at the Presidential Secretariat. The first scheme will provide micro-finance up to Rs. 100, 000 while the second will comprise Small and Medium Scale loans up to Rs. 5 million. The interest rate for both schemes will be 6 percent per annum with a grace period of One Year. Loans would cover 85 percent of the proposed project costs. These loans will be made available through Commercial Banks. The total money available under these schemes will be Rs. 5 billion. Loans will be recovered within 3 - 8 years depending on the amounts released and size of the respective projects. The Task Force on Rehabilitation and Reconstruction is presently discussing with private and public sector concerns affected by the tsunami disaster as well as with international donors. The latter including the United Nations and its agencies, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank have pledged alternate funding over US $ 100 million at low interest, Presidential Advisor Mano Tittawela told the gathering. Commenting on infrastructure reconstruction he noted that the objective is not to replace poverty with poverty but to put in place a modern infrastructure. |
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