New World Bank strategy to support Govt’s efforts to achieve greater prosperity

The World Bank Group’s Board of Directors on Friday endorsed a new fouryear strategy aimed at achieving greater prosperity for Sri Lanka and its people. The strategy emphasises macro-economic stability, improving Sri Lanka’s global competitiveness, investing in under-served people and areas, and promoting green growth, a news release issued by the World Bank said.

It states the World Bank Group’s Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for Sri Lanka for the period ending June 2020, reflects the development vision of the Government. It draws on the priorities identified in an earlier World Bank analysis of the opportunities and challenges facing the country’s economy, Systematic Country Diagnostic, according to the announcement.

The areas identified for support are those in which the World Bank Group (WBG) has a comparative advantage and where there are opportunities to leverage the private sector to provide sustainable solutions to the country’s development challenges. Through online consultations and face to face consultations in Matara, Jaffna, Batticaloa, Kandy and Colombo, the general public was able to partici- pate in shaping the strategy.

“The Country Partnership Framework for Sri Lanka is prepared in close collaboration with government counterparts and through an extensive consultation process with beneficiaries,” said Françoise Clottes, outgoing World Bank Country Director for Sri Lanka and the Maldives. “This CPF will bring support, through knowledge work and investments, to the implementation reform agenda of the Government of Sri Lanka, while advancing the objectives of greater competitiveness, inclusion and sustainability,” she said.