News
Sri Lanka named once again for grants under ADB’s biggest special fund
View(s):By Kapila Bandara
Sri Lanka was once again named among the developing countries that will get grants for four years from 2025 under a multibillion-dollar dedicated fund of the Asian Development Bank.
The Asian Development Fund of the ADB gives grants (funds do not have to be repaid) for specific challenges and supports climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction in poor countries.
ADF is ADB’s biggest special fund and the biggest source of grants.
The ADB said from Manila that “the individual country allocation and specific projects have not been decided’’ when asked about the grants that could be available to Sri Lanka.
ADB named the ‘primary recipients’ of grants at its annual meetings, which ended in Tbilisi, Georgia, this week.
This is not the first time Sri Lanka has been chosen as a grant recipient from the fund.
In Sri Lanka’s neighbourhood, the Maldives, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan are among the 28 countries named as grant recipients. Most are vulnerable small island states in the Pacific, such as Fiji, Tonga, Kiribati, Samoa, Nauru, Palau, and Papua New Guinea.
Sri Lanka could expect grants from the fund in areas such as adapting to climate change, food and water security, biodiversity, and environmental conservation.
The focus areas for 2025–2028 were noted by Tomoyuki Kimura, director general of the strategy, policy, and partnerships department at ADB. He leads the fund team.
He also mentioned “a potential US$ 16.7 billion in concessional loans,’’ for ADB members, with low interest rates over long repayment periods, alongside ADF grants.
At the meeting of the ADB board of governors, many constructive proposals were presented. France, in particular, said taking action against climate change “must go hand in hand with biodiversity conservation”, and the United States said the focus must now “turn to measuring not just funds disbursed but climate outcomes achieved’’.
Sri Lanka’s Shehan Semasinghe, state minister of finance, said among other things: “As we know, the Asia and Pacific region continues to face growing challenges, and rebounding from constant shocks are challenging, (sic) therefore we need to design new strategies jointly to tackle risks caused by multiple challenges such as inequality and poverty along with dangers arising from climate devastation, while paying attention to uncertainties in the region due to conflict and volatile community (sic) (commodity) prices.’’
The Asian Development Fund is separate from the ADB’s Country Partnership Strategy for Sri Lanka, which outlines assistance for five years to 2028. Assistance is given under strategic objectives: strengthening public financial management and governance, fostering private sector development, promoting green growth, improving access to climate-smart public services, and deepening inclusion.
At the 57th annual general meeting, donors agreed to replenish the ADF and the Technical Assistance Fund by US$ 5 billion (Rs. 1.49 trillion). The fund is replenished every four years, the ADB said. On the previous occasion, the US$ 4.1 billion was available to the fund.
The Technical Assistance Fund gives grants to help prepare projects, build capacity, and provide technical or policy advice. Sri Lanka has committed a mere US$ 6,000 to this fund.
The ADF will focus on adapting to climate change, reducing disaster risk, promoting gender equality, and regional cooperation and integration, including regional public goods. Examples of regional public goods include joint disease surveillance and elimination through immunisation, and protocols for managing marine fisheries.
For Sri Lanka in 2003, the ADB disbursed US$ 908 million (Rs 271.3 billion) and committed US$ 610 million in loans. Also, US$ 5.5 million was committed for technical assistance, including capacity building for the national agency for public–private partnerships, micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises, and investments in energy transition.
Maga Engineering Pvt. Ltd. grabbed the biggest share of ADB projects worth US$ 208.7 million (Rs 62.3 billion) from January 2019 to December 2023. The second biggest contractor was K.D.A. Weerasinghe and Co. Pvt. Ltd., with projects worth US$ 51.59 million, and NEM Construction Pvt. Ltd. (U$ 43.96 million).
Importantly, China National Technical Import and Export Corp (SRI) has grabbed contracts worth US$ 32.18 million.
Cumulatively, Sri Lanka has been the recipient of US$ 11.8 billion from ADB for 488 public sector loans, grants, and technical assistance as of December 2023. Cumulative sovereign and non-sovereign loan and grants disbursed amount to US$ 10.32 billion.
ADB has changed its capital adequacy framework after a review to make available US$ 100 billion in new funding in the next decade, or about US$ 10 billion a year. ADB’s annual lending capacity will rise to more than US$ 36 billion, the ADB said.
The best way to say that you found the home of your dreams is by finding it on Hitad.lk. We have listings for apartments for sale or rent in Sri Lanka, no matter what locale you're looking for! Whether you live in Colombo, Galle, Kandy, Matara, Jaffna and more - we've got them all!