Armenian Proposals For Extra U.S. To Be Ready ‘Next Month’
By Gevorg Stamboltsian 17/06/2004 03:45

Radio Free Press, Czech Republic
June 17 2004

Prime Minister Andranik Markarian said on Wednesday the Armenian
government will finalize by the end of next month its proposals for
the use of additional U.S. government assistance which it will likely
receive under Washington’s Millennium Challenge Account (MCA)
program.

Markarian spoke after chairing the first meeting of an ad hoc
commission of senior government officials which is tasked with
assessing the country’s urgent needs, discussing possible ways of
meeting them with the promised extra U.S. aid and submitting a
relevant plan to the American side.

Under the terms of the MCA, Armenia and 15 other developing nations
selected by the U.S. government last spring must themselves specify
how much money they need and how they would use it. Top executives
from the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) which runs the scheme
visited Yerevan late last month for the first discussions on the
subject with Armenian officials.

They made it clear that the aid allocation to Armenia is not a
forgone conclusion and will depend on the quality of the proposals.
According to senior U.S. diplomats, it will also be contingent on the
improvement of Yerevan’s “poor” human rights record.

Speaking to journalists, Markarian said that the government would
like to primarily spend the MCA funds on the reconstruction of the
battered infrastructure of the country’s impoverished rural regions
that have hardly benefited from recent years’ economic growth. He
said that would mean rebuilding schools, countryside roads and
irrigation networks. “All of these programs must be in line with our
[12-year] poverty reduction strategy,” he said.

Asked how much the Armenian side expects to get from the MCC, he
said: “It is too early to talk about sums [of money]. But according
to our preliminary estimates, [the government will ask for] between
$500 million and $600 million in the next five years.”

Finance and Economy Minister Vartan Khachatrian came up last week
with an even more ambitious aid target: $700 million, of which $100
million should be made available as early as this year. But he was
more cautious and vague in his comments on Wednesday. “Even [the MCC]
don’t know what will happen,” he said.

Khachatrian reiterated that the government commission in charge of
the MCA is open to proposals from Armenian non-governmental
organizations. He complained that it has received only two aid
projects so far.

Armenia has already received over $1.5 billion in regular U.S.
assistance since independence. It will get at least $78.4 million
worth of further assistance in the course of this year.