The World Bank will resume funding of all its projects in Madagascar, a source from this financial institution told Xinhua on Thursday.The World Banks resident representative in Madagascar Adolfo Brizzi said that the banks current portfolio in Madagascar is comprised of 14 projects whose total cost is 900 million U.S. dollars, but funding for these projects was suspended since 2009 due to the political crisis in the country.He said that funds will be allocated to priority areas such as governance, poverty reduction and job creation. The funds will be used to improve the competitiveness of SMEs and overall economic growth. He noted that the available balance of funds that need to be disbursed to complete the projects that were being funded by the World Bank had increased to 220 million U.S. dollars.The resumption of funding is an intermediary program by the World Bank which will be spread for a one and half year period, between early 2012 to June 2013. During the last three years which were characterised by the suspension of international aid, it was discovered that poverty had increased. We have also witnessed the deterioration of governance standards. The analysis of the World Bank showed that Madagascar had lost points on this level. Access to services in the health and education sectors is far from achieving the Millenium Developpment Goals (MDGs). If we do not do anything, then the cost of inaction will be much higher, he said.The 14 projects include those targeting rural development, infrastructure in the transport sector, management of mineral resources, institutional governance and environmental conservation.
