Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Sunday, May 08, 2005
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Sunday, May 08, 2005 |
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Money & Banking
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RBI & Other Central Banks ADB raises target for loans to India M. Ramesh
Chennai , May 7
ASIAN Development Bank has pegged the target for loans to India at $2 billion (Rs 9,000 crore) for 2005. Last year, the bank gave ten loans adding to $1.3 billion to Indian projects, which was lower than the $1.5 billion for nine projects in the previous year. Loans sanctioned in 2004 were also considerably lower than the target of $1.8 billion. If ADB succeeds in lending $2 billion to India this year, the country would emerge as ADB's biggest borrower, overtaking China, Mr Gregory A. London, Specialist, Principal Consulting Services, ADB, told Business Line. ADB has cumulatively lent close to $15 billion (Rs 67,000 crore) to various projects in India. Loan approvals last year include $400 million each for the North-South corridor (road) project and a project to upgrade power transmission infrastructure, $250 million to improve infrastructure in Jammu and Kashmir and $150 million to help Assam manage its fiscal imbalances. Mr London was here to speak at a seminar on `Development of domestic consulting services', organised jointly by ADB, Consultancy Development Centre, Ministry of Science and Technology, and Exim Bank of India. The objective of the seminar is to develop enough consultants in each country whose services the bank could use for appraising projects in those countries. In addition to giving loans for projects, ADB also provides technical assistance grants, which are typically between $5,00,000 and $1 million. Usually, most of the grant funds are used to pay consultants. Mr London said the bank spent about $350 million a year on consultancy development. Mr K. Muthukumaran, General Manager, Exim Bank, said Global Procurement Consultants Ltd, a consultancy company promoted by the bank in 1996, had secured assignments from ADB and the World Bank across the world. The company has done procurement audit jobs in several Eastern European countries, the CIS countries and some African countries. It was mentioned at the seminar that India received in 2004 ADB grants of $18 million for hiring consultants. That makes India the fourth largest recipient of the grant, after the US, the UK and Australia.
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