The Hindu Business Line : Three loan agreements signed with World Bank

Development assistance: The World Bank President, Mr Robert B. Zoellick, greets the Union Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, in the Capital on Friday as the Minister for Commerce and Industry, Mr Kamal Nath (left), and the Minister for Labour, Mr Oscar Fernandes, look on. The World Bank agreed to sanction a loan of $944 million to India for strengthening rural finance system, vocational training programmes and community-based water management projects.

Our Bureau

New Delhi, Nov. 2

The World Bank on Friday signed three loan agreements with India for total assistance of $944 million towards three projects in the critical areas of rural finance, vocational training and restoration of water bodies.

The loan agreements are for strengthening of rural credit cooperatives involving a loan assistance of $600 million, vocational education training project with assistance of $280 million and additional financing for the Karnataka Community-based Tank Management project involving $64 million loan and credit.

They were signed here in the presence of the visiting World Bank President, Mr Robert B. Zoellick, and the Union Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, Commerce and Industry Minister, Mr Kamal Nath, and the Labour Minister, Mr Oscar Fernandes.

The agreements were signed by Mr Madhusudhan Prasad, Joint Secretary in the Finance Ministry, on behalf of the Indian Government and Ms Isabel Guerrero, Country Director, India, for the World Bank.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Zoellick said that the “three projects being signed today reflect the Government of India’s very pertinent focus on revitalising the rural economy and on removing skill gaps that could impact India’s sustained growth. The bank is committed to supporting these priorities”.

Stating that the culmination of project preparation process on all these projects gave him great personal satisfaction, the Finance Minister pointed out that that all the three projects related to the announcements made in his budget speech.

Projects

Under the vocational education training project, Mr Chidambaram said that industrial training institutes (ITIs) would be strengthened to enable workers to upgrade their skills and contribute to the country’s growth process.

With $280 million of IDA assistance envisaged in this project, 400 ITIs would be upgraded over a period of four years.

He also noted that the Karnataka Community-based tank management project would cover 1,225 tanks and bring an estimated 52,000 hectares of land under improved irrigation in the next few years.

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