ALMOST NO MONEY WILL BE SPENT THIS YEAR
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[07:09 pm] 31 March, 2006
Armenia will manage to carry out work costing 4-6 million by the
program “Millennium Challenges” if it finishes the preparation
phase till autumn. The SU Fund has allotted 235 million 650 thousand
USD to Armenia to reconstruct the village roads and to improve the
irrigation system.
The Minister of Finance and Economy Vardan Khachatryan returned to
Armenia after signing an agreement with the head of the MC Fund John
Danilovich in the USA. He rendered a press conference today about
the details of the business trip.
The Government is ready to carry out all the works financed by the MC
Fund on the highest level as the financing can be ceased if the heads
of the Fund are discontent with anything. The most important part
of the information given by the Minister is that after signing the
agreement the US State Secretary Condoleezza Rice invited the Armenian
Minister Vardan Oskanyan and Vardan Khachatryan to her office and had a
private conversation with them about issues concerning Armenia and the
settlement of the Karabakh conflict for 10-15 minutes. The Minister of
Finance and Economy did not inform any details about the conversation.
According to the report given by Vardan Khachatryan, 945 km of village
road will be reconstructed for which 167 million 100 thousand USD will
be spent. The Government has decided to spend 145 million USD for
the programs “Village Development”, “Irrigation”, and “Construction
of New Water Reservoirs”.
The rest of the sum – 23.5 million, will probably be spent on
consultations, the salaries of the workers of the “Millennium
Challenges” state non-commercial organization and on financing of NGOs.
Vardan Khachatryan also said that the head of the MC Fund John
Danilovich will come to Armenia in two weeks.