Nepal records 35 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday
Nepal reported 35 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday.
According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 3, 881 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which 32 returned positive. Likewise, 1, 387 people underwent antigen tests, of which three were tested positive.
The Ministry said that no one died of virus in the last 24 hours. The Ministry said that 266 infected people recovered from the disease.
As of today, there are 2, 219 active cases in the country.
‘Have to eat half’: Sri Lankans feel pain of spiralling economic crisis
Thusitha Hadaragama stood at a corner store near his home in Sri Lanka’s Minuwangoda town this week and surveyed groceries to buy for his family of five, including two school-age children, who live on his monthly salary of 50,000 rupees ($181.82), Reuters reported.
“Prices have gone up again. I will buy a little bit,” said the 43-year-old driver, who works in Sri Lanka’s commercial capital of Colombo, 40 kilometres away. “We will have to eat half of what we ate before.”
Across Sri Lanka, families like Hadaragama’s are feeling the growing pain of the country’s worst economic crisis in years, which has driven up prices of essentials and triggered shortages of everything from food to fuel.
Historically weak government finances, badly timed tax cuts and the COVID-19 pandemic, which pummelled the tourism industry and foreign remittances, have wreaked havoc on the economy, according to Reuters.
The country is left with foreign reserves of only around $2.31 billion as of February, even as it faces debt payments of about $4 billion through the rest of the year.
“The reason for the shortages is not a shortage of any commodity but the shortage of dollars,” said Dhananath Fernando, chief operating officer of Colombo think-tank Advocata Institute.
Shedding months of resistance, Sri Lanka’s government last week said it would begin talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a way out of the crisis.
The country of 22 million people has also sought assistance from India and China.
But for ordinary Sri Lankans, everyday chores have become an ordeal. To fill up his motorcycle, Hadaragama now must stand in long queues and pay more than double for a litre of petrol compared to three months ago, Reuters reported.
At home, his wife, Varuni, has cut down on how much she cooks to feed her family, which includes two teenage boys and a daughter.
“Earlier I cooked three potatoes,” she said. “Now I make only two.”
NEA to buy electricity from India at Rs 38 per unit
The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has decided to buy electricity with India at Rs 38 per unit from Friday.
Organizing a press conference on Thursday, NEA spokesperson Suresh Bahadur Bhattarai said that Nepal has made an agreement to buy electricity with India at a higher price so far.
Bhattarai said that Nepal has to pay Rs 38 per unit when it buys electricity with India at InRs 20.
Nepal had purchased electricity with India at InRs 8 per unit some time ago.
AIIB Offers New Facility to Reduce Cost of Infrastructure Loans
The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank’s (AIIB) Board of Directors has approved the creation of a Special Fund Window (SFW) to make its financing more affordable to its less developed members. This is an additional effort by AIIB to further support its less developed members especially by reducing the cost of lending for Infrastructure for Tomorrow (i4t).
The SFW is a blended financing facility that will provide interest rate buy down to eligible sovereign-backed financing projects that are aligned with AIIB’s Corporate Strategy and identified according to AIIB’s regular rigorous investment process.
“Infrastructure investments and connectivity are crucial for lower-income countries to regain a growth momentum and to achieve long-term sustainable development goals in the post-COVID-19 era, while also dealing with climate change,” said AIIB President and Chair of the Board Jin Liqun. “Through the SFW, AIIB can support its less developed members with affordable pricing while still being consistent with the core elements of our business model to finance i4t. Although modest in scale, we are glad to be able to complement other multilateral development banks by bringing much needed additional financing to lower-income members.”
“Our Corporate Strategy commits to broadening the range of clients AIIB can support, with particular focus on our less developed members,” said Sir Danny Alexander, AIIB Vice President for Policy and Strategy. “For the first time, with the support of donors, this new facility will enable AIIB to offer more affordable loan pricing to these members. Combined with our Project Preparation Special Fund which makes grants to support the preparation of high quality projects, we hope this new facility will help meet the needs of our less developed members and global efforts to support sustainable development and tackle climate change.”
AIIB has made gradual efforts to expand its offering to less developed members, including through AIIB’s Project Preparation Special Fund. In 2020 and in response to the pandemic, AIIB created a Special Fund Window under the COVID-19 Crisis Recovery Facility offering an interest rate buy-down mechanism for financing extended to less developed members. The new SFW will build on the experiences gained and further extend AIIB’s financing to these members.
The SFW includes unique features that demonstrate innovation in the field of blended finance. It will be funded by voluntary contributions from AIIB’s members. Decision-making authority will reside with AIIB’s existing multilateral governance structure, and the SFW will operate according to the rules and regulations approved by AIIB’s Board of Directors. For operational efficiency reasons, the SFW implementation will be fully incorporated into AIIB’s regular investment process.
Projects under the SFW would contribute to supporting AIIB’s Corporate Strategy priorities and targets. AIIB’s Corporate Strategy (2021-2030) combines the Bank’s firm commitment to sustainability with a clear operational focus on (1) Green Infrastructure, (2) Connectivity and Regional Cooperation, (3) Technology-enabled Infrastructure and (4) Private Capital Mobilization. It sets targets on climate financing (50 percent of actual financing approvals by 2025), cross-border connectivity (25-30 percent of actual financing approvals by 2030) and private sector financing (50 percent of total approved financing by 2030).
