Financial Times

World Bank President visits Sri Lanka
World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn arrived in Sri Lanka this weekend to have a first-hand view of the destruction to lives, livelihoods and property caused by the tsunamis. His visit coincided with that of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan.

Wolfensohn was scheduled to visit some of the disaster sites and meet with senior members of the government besides others involved in the relief and recovery effort including Civil Society Organisations.

He arrived from Indonesia after attending a special ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) leader’s meeting on the crisis, and will proceed to the Maldives. He was accompanied by senior officials of the World Bank, including the Vice President for the South Asia Region, Praful Patel.

"This is a crisis of massive proportion, requiring a massive response from the international community," said Wolfensohn. "I am travelling to the region to see for myself the extent of peoples' needs on the ground, and to help advance further the World Bank's response. We are working hand-in-hand with all our partners as we help these countries make the transition from humanitarian relief to long-term recovery."

Sri Lanka is to receive $100 million out of an initial World Bank commitment of $250 million for emergency reconstruction while further financing for longer-term reconstruction needs are identified. The $250 million can be made available quickly from existing programs, and will include the provision of emergency credits and grants to respond to the immediate needs in the countries hit by this disaster, the bank said in a statement.

Since the crisis the World Bank Colombo response so far has included:

* Releasing resources under ongoing projects for medicines, epidemic prevention, water purification and storage tanks, pumps and earth moving equipment.

* Reviewing the portfolio of Bank projects to determine additional resources that can be released for the immediate effort, or readied for the longer-term rehabilitation effort. For example, ongoing operations in education, health and housing can readily be adapted for the reconstruction that will be needed over the coming months.

* Readying a Bank team to be in Sri Lanka within the week to begin the work of assessing the reconstruction needs, and preparing an appropriate response.

Apart from resources from portfolio restructuring, the rapid processing of an Emergency Recovery Credit is foreseen by end February.

* Agreement with the ADB and the Japanese government that the organizations will work hand-in-hand to prepare the next stage of the response.

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