Armenia expects to get $16.5 million from MCC before the end of the year
YEREVAN, September 12, /ARKA/. Armenia will ask the next meeting of the
Board of Directors of the U.S. Millennium Challenges Corporation (MCC)
to release about $16,5 million in Q4 from the main segment of the aid
package, approved by MCC for Armenia in 2006, Ara Hovsepian, head of
MCC Armenia said today.
In response to a question from ARKA, he said the allocation is due to
be spent on rebuilding and expanding Armenia’s irrigation networks, to
launch in Q4. According to him, the MCC has so far released a total of
$39 million to Armenia.
In a reference to the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation’s decision
not to release the $67 million component for reconstruction and repair
of about 1,000 kilometers of Armenian rural roads, Ara Hovsepian said
following that decision the Armenian government in July 2008 decided to
allocate about $17 million of its own funds to rural road construction
envisaged by Armenia’s MCA compact.
He said unfinished projects are being now, in accordance with a
government decision, handed to the ministry of transport.
The United States effectively cut nearly one third of a $235.6 million
air package for rural road rehabilitation, citing Armenian government’s
deteriorated human rights record and calling into question its
commitment to democracy and good governance.
The Millennium Challenge Account (MCA), a multimillion-dollar scheme
designed to reward economic and political reforms in the developing
world, was started in 2006.
Armenia was to receive $236.65 million in 2006-2011. Most of the MCA
funds were to be spent on rebuilding and expanding the country’s
battered irrigation networks and refurbishing about 1,000 kilometers of
rural roads. -0-