OTHER SOURCES OF ROAD CONSTRUCTION FINANCING MUST BE FOUND, MCA-ARMENIA CEO SAYS

Noyan Tapan
June 16, 2009

YEREVAN, JUNE 16, NOYAN TAPAN. Armenia has not received so far any
official letter on the June 10 decision of the Millennium Challenge
Corporation (MCC) Board of Directors, CEO of Millennium Challenge
Account-Armenia (MCA-Armenia) state noncommercial organization Ara
Hovsepian said at the June 16 sitting of the MCA-Armenia Council
of Beneficiaries.

To recap, under a decision of the MCC Board of Directors the
financing of the program on road rehabilitation in Armenia will not
resume. According to an official report of the MCC, the financing was
suspended due to the Armenian government’s actions which do not proceed
from the MCC principles of democratic governance promotion. The MCC
CEO Rodney Bent said that he does not think that the MCC Board of
Directors will address this issue again in the future.

In the words of Ara Hovsepian, it will become clear what measures
should be taken with respect to the suspension or freeze of the
program only after an official letter from the MMC is received.

Under the MCA-Armenia program, the financing of rural road
rehabilitation made up about 25% of the total sum: out of a total of
235 million 650 thousand dollars, 64 million dollars was allocated
for rural road rehabilitation. It was planned to repair roads of
the total length of 273 km in nearly all marzes (provinces) of the
country. A. Hovsepian announced that repairs of these roads are still
being carried out with 16.8 million dollars received from the Armenian
government, but the financial resources received from the state budget
will run out by late June.

In response to the question of what steps should be taken to carry the
repair work to its logical conclusion, A. Hovsepian said that other
sources of financing must be found so as to finish the launched work
because both the population and road traffic are suffering from it.