Reading.

3.1. (30 points) Read this text about the People's Bank of Sri Lanka. Translate the text into Russian.

The People's Bank

1. The People's Bank is one of Sri Lanka's biggest banks with 6.5 million accounts out of a population of 18.3 million. It provides a full range of domestic and international banking services. In particular, it tries to help the weaker sectors of the economy by providing financing and credit. So far, most of the Bank's branches have been situated in the towns.

2. But now, one of the main objectives of the People's Bank is to improve financial services throughout the whole country. To achieve this goal, the Bank has taken a number of measures, including: opening branches in rural areas, recruiting staff locally and carrying out business dealings in local languages. Above all, it has created a new village-based institution called the 'Rural Bank'.

3. There are now 1,206 Rural Banks countrywide, with more planned. The People's Bank has identified the needs of the rural sector and has introduced various credit schemes to suit farmers and other rural entrepreneurs. For example, the bank has granted credit for rice cultivation. It is also providing credit facilities to the organisations which buy agricultural produce from farmers. In this way, farmers can sell their crops during the harvesting seasons instead of having to wait or store them.

4. The People's Bank understands the importance of the Micro Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) sector in creating employment and encouraging economic activity. Unlike large factory-based centralised enterprises, which go in for mass production of a few products, the small and medium enterprises in the MSME sector cover a wide range of products. A good example of the way in which the People's Bank is assisting industrial development in rural areas is its support for electrification: it has already provided more than Rs 2 billion.

5. The MSME sector is the fastest-growing sector of the Sri Lankan economy. It is clear, too, that small entrepreneurs are desperate for credit facilities. They are already paying very high interest rates to private lenders. The People's Bank intends to provide credit to these small businesses at attractive rates of interest. The People's Bank is therefore working on a scheme aimed specifically at them. It is called the 'Rural Banking Innovation Project', which will be introduced within the next eighteen months. It will have a number of financial innovations, including competitive interest rates, linking credit with savings, and repayment of loans in regular instalments.

Дата добавления: 2015-08-09