SL to get US$290mn soft loan from Korea

5 January 2013 09:49 am Views - 2547

Sri Lanka will get up to 290 million US dollars from Korea for renewable energy and infrastructure under a framework agreement signed last week, the Korean embassy in Colombo said.

"Under the arrangement, the two Governments are expected to work closely to develop a range of projects including construction of administrative complexes, renewable energy plants and infrastructure development," the embassy said in a statement.

"The projects will be facilitated by the Korean Embassy and the Export and Import bank of Korea."

Sri Lanka has already received 500 million US dollars in soft loans from Korea's Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF) which was started in 1987 to boost economic co-operation between Korea and developing countries.

The Korean embassy said loans are given as low as 0.1 percent a year with repayment of up to 40 years. At present Sri Lanka was the fourth largest recipient of Korean aid in areas of water supply, irrigation, energy, transport and establishing social safety networks.(ELP.com)