JAKARTA, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) pledged up to 1 billion U.S. dollars of emergency assistance fund to support Indonesia's immediate budgetary needs and reconstruction efforts in areas affected by earthquakes and tsunami in Central Sulawesi province.
The ADB assistance fund pledge was conveyed in the meeting of ADB President Takehiko Nakao with Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Friday during the annual meeting of International Monetary Fund and the World Bank held in Bali.
In the meeting Nakao conveyed his deepest condolence for those affected by the multiple disasters.
The ADB emergency assistance fund consists of 500 million dollars to support the government's emergency budget and an additional of 500 million dollars to support reconstruction of critical infrastructure, such as water supply and sanitation, schools, roads and bridges, and electricity networks among others.
Those emergency assistance fund is on top of ADB's regular sovereign loan program to Indonesia, which stood at an average of 2 billion dollars annually.
The ADB's emergency assistance loans would be prepared in close coordination with the government, affected communities, and other stakeholders, and submitted to the ADB Board of Directors on a fast-track basis.
The loans would have special terms, with grace period of 8 years and a repayment period of 32 years, longer than usual. ADB will also provide technical assistance to support government-led damage needs assessments as well as the recovery and reconstruction planning.
Besides the emergency assistance fund, ADB has approved a 3 million U.S. Dollars of grant to support immediate relief efforts in Indonesia's Central Sulawesi province, a statement released by ADB said.
