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L-R Dr Frank Mentrup – Lord Mayor of Karlsruhe, Arshad Rab – CEO European Organisation for Sustainable Development, Kapila Subasinghe – Vice President Corporate Banking, DFCC Bank, Octavio Peralta – Secretary General, Association of Development Financing Institutions in Asia and the Pacific.

DFCC Bank was the winner of the Most Outstanding Sustainable Project Finance Award at this year’s Annual Global Sustainable Finance Conference held in Karlsruhe Germany recently. This award recognizes outstanding success in long term financing and support of exemplary industrial/commercial or infrastructure projects that have benefited local communities, protects the environment and ensures reliable returns to all stakeholders.

The Award was conferred to DFCC in recognition of the Bank’s invaluable contribution to developing the Renewable Energy Sector in Sri Lanka through two decades. DFCC committed resources and provided leadership as the lender in financing the renewable energy sector as well as successfully operated the Administrative Unit for two related credit lines; the Energy Services Delivery Project (ESD) and Renewable Energy for Rural Economic Development (RERED) project. These projects aimed at fostering rural economic development and improving the quality of life in rural areas by providing access to electricity, and to expand the commercial provision of electricity generated from renewable sources.

Theses endeavors have been long recognised as ‘flagship’ projects by the World Bank for having played a crucial role in the development of non-conventional renewable energy sources in Sri Lanka. The two credit lines funded 74 mini-hydro, biomass and wind projects with a cumulative installed capacity of 216.3 MW. In addition, 131,528 households received electricity from Solar Home Systems, and a further 7,952 households through community based electrification schemes.

The Kalshruhe Global Sustainable Finance Conference 2013 was organized by the Global Sustainable Finance Network under the auspices of The World Federation of Development Financing Institutions (WFDFI) and endorsed by the United Nations Environment Program Finance Initiative. Established in 1979, in Zurich, WFDFI is a global focal point for organizations that promote sustainable development finance. It consists of 326 member institutions in 154 countries across the world.

DFCC is one of the oldest development Banks in the World, well known for its pioneering work in developing sectors including the country’s SME sector. The Bank has been the financier of trail blazing Lankan entrepreneurs especially during their risky early stages. The Bank was also recently conferred the award for ‘The Most Outstanding Local Economic Development Project’ at the Association of Development Financing Institutions in Asia and the Pacific (ADFIAP) Awards 2013 for their contribution to the development of a Seafood processing plant with positive impacts on the community in the Jaffna peninsula.