The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will continue to support the government’s development plans over the next five years, which will be aimed at job creation, income enhancement, rural economic development, knowledge formation, and economic diversification, including export development.
This follows a meeting Finance and Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera, had with In-Chang Song, an Executive Director of the Board of ADB at the ADB HQ on Friday, while attending the 51st Annual meeting of the ADB in Manila.
Both sides agreed at the meeting to accelerate ongoing bilateral projects, which currently surpass US$ 3.6 billion.
The ADB program in Sri Lanka has provided loans, grants and technical assistance to grow the country’s economy and improve the lives of people, particularly the poor, women, children and other vulnerable groups.
Earlier in the week a senior ADB official said, Sri Lanka will see a significant increase up to US$ 600-800 million this year.
ADB has worked closely with Sri Lanka since 1966, signing loans, grants, and technical assistance totaling $9.1 billion as of 31 December 2017.
The government, formed following the presidential and general elections in January 2015 and August 2015, respectively - is focused on inclusive growth, good governance, and private sector development. Sri Lankan delegation to the ADB conference includes Secretary to Treasury Dr. R.H.S. Samaratunga and other senior officials of the Budget Department and the ERD.
Minister Samaraweera was also among a four member panel who discussed Technology for Change live on CNBC Global on Friday on the sidelines of the 51st Annual Meeting of the ADB.
The other panelists were Takehiko Nakao, President of the ADB, Minnette Navarette, President of Kickstart Ventures, and Nandita Parshad, Managing Director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, who were engaged in a debate by CNBC’s Anchor Oriel Morrison. The discussion focused on the emerging new technologies and the impact of such advanced systems on developing societies particularly on employment generation. Robotics and Artificial Intelligence were identified as new areas of concern but the panelists agreed that better educated well trained youth will be able to adjust to these changes if governments are encouraged to steer educational systems fitting to contemporary demands of the global job markets.