SINGAPORE: The World Bank will raise its lending programme to $46 billion in the current fiscal year from the earlier estimate of $26 billion. Indicating this, World Bank Vice-President (East Asia & Pacific Region), James W. Adams, has told that “We expect that enormous increase to be sustained next year as well”.

The increases were linked to the bank’s support for the stimulus packages in different countries during the current global economic slowdown and to the anti-poverty programmes.

Mr. Adams was answering questions, on the sidelines of an ongoing Water Leaders Summit being organised by the Singapore Government and public utilities.

Citing two reasons for the enhanced lending, he said “we have the financial capacity” to sustain this. Secondly, “we recognise it is essential to ensure that the real progress that has been made in [countries like] India is not sacrificed in the financial crisis”. On a worldwide scale, the bank was also concerned about the “fear” that the growth caused by “the initial stimulus” might “fade.”

Emphasising that he was not directly associated with the funding to India, Mr. Adams said the World Bank did recognise that “some governments will be in a position to sustain their stimulus packages” over time.

“The enormous but very complicated Chinese stimulus package” was the “large source” of that country’s growth rate for this year, now scaled up by the World Bank to 7.2 per cent from 6.5 per cent as estimated three months ago.

As an official responsible for China, Mr. Adams said: “We are not providing additional support from the bank [to sustain this stimulus package]. But, what we have been prepared to do is to accelerate key infrastructure projects. So, this year, we have done two $300-million railroad projects [as part of China’s] $15-billion programmes. … China has accelerated these programmes. The second railroad project that we are doing was originally in our fiscal year 2012 programme