Sri Lanka's government has given its nod to $310 million in financial assistance from the Asian Development Bank and World Bank, an official said here Friday.
The ADB project will be for a skills enhancement programme that aims to establish labour supply locally and internationally by 2020, Xinhua reported.
The programme will develop skills, abilities, and competencies of youth to meet the demands of the global economy and support the country's transition to a knowledge-based economy.
The ADB will provide $200 million for this purpose and approval was given by the Sri Lanka's cabinet to a proposal submitted by President Mahinda Rajapaksa as the finance minister.
The World Bank project is to support climate change combating initiatives. The International Development Association of the World Bank will provide $110 million for a comprehensive programme to improve climate resilience.
"Sri Lanka is a country with great exposure to risks of multi hazards and as such the government has taken significant steps towards strengthening the legislative and institutional arrangement for disaster risk management while investing to a great extent on emergency preparedness and response capacity as priority is given for climate change in the country's development agenda," the cabinet paper said.
