ELECTIONS IN 2007 AND 2008 MAY CUT THE MILLENNIUM MONEY

Lragir.am
13 april 06

The group of U.S. Congress representatives and John Danilovich,
Chief Executive Officer of the Millennium Challenge Corporation, who
arrived in Yerevan with the group, are pleased with their meetings
in Armenia. Jim Golby mentioned that the main purpose of their visit
was to study conditions for launching the Millennium Challenge program.

The U.S. government will grant 235 million dollars to Armenia
within 5 years. The money will be spent on the development of rural
infrastructures.

Jim Golby says the Millennium Challenge program is a dynamic program
of U.S. assistance to countries which are committed to fair governance
and a transparent society, and they believe that Armenia proceeds
along this path.

The director of the MCC John Danilovich stated that their visit to
the region established their commitment to implementation of the
agreement signed March 27 in Washington.

John Danilovich said during their meetings with the speaker, foreign
minister and president of Armenia they became convinced that the
government of Armenia is eager to implement the program successfully.

The corporation will assist the government of Armenia in a successful
implementation of the program. Besides, Danilovich said the MCC will
control the implementation of the program to prevent corruption. For
this purpose the American side lays emphasis on the engagement of
civil institutions in the implementation of the program. During their
visit that lasted for almost three days John Danilovich and the U.S.

Congress representatives met with non-governmental organizations. He
said hopefully the non-governmental organizations will get widely
engaged in the MCC program.

He assured that the program will help to cut poverty, promote
democracy and judiciary reforms and development of other spheres of a
transparent and open society. With regard to the level of democracy
in Armenia John Danilovich said democracy is a continuous process,
and Congressman Golby said the basic principle of democracy is fair
elections, and the MCC would not launch the program if the government
and the society of Armenia did not seek for fair elections. Jim Golby
said fair election is not just voting; it is electoral registers,
campaign, fundraising. He stated that the elections in 2007 and
2008 may call a halt to the program of the MCC if they do not comply
with the standards of democracy. The Congress representative stated,
nevertheless, that the United States is hopeful the elections will
be fair.

The delegation of the U.S. Congress representatives, which had arrived
in Yerevan from Georgia, left for Azerbaijan full of hopes.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress