Armenia receives $35m under Millennium Challenges corporation program

YEREVAN, September 2. /ARKA/. Armenia has already received $35 million under the Millennium Challenges Corporation program this year, General Director of Millennium Challenges – Armenia Fund state non-commercial organization Ara Hovsepyan reported.

The quarterly application for October-December will be submitted to the Corporation in mid September. The exact amount is not clear, yet the application is supposed to be for a quite big amount as major construction is to be started under the irrigation program, Hovsepyan said.

The program of the U.S. Millennium Challenges Corporation started in Armenia on September 29 2006. Under the agreement signed on March 27 2006 the Armenian Government is to receive a $235.65mln worth grant during five years. The grant is to be used for reduction of rural poverty in Armenia, rehabilitation of rural roads and irrigation systems. $108 million will be allocated for rehabilitation of irrigation systems alone. In 2008, the country received $28 million from the Corporation.

All the projects under the Corporation programs, including Water to Market activity, are currently underway, Hovsepyan said. Rural loans for a total of $2.5 million have been allocated under the program as loans to agriculture, he said.

The road construction program is lost, but the fund still has much to do by September 2011, Hovsepyan said. He reported that the suspended road construction program has been handed over to the country’s Ministry of Transport and Communication for continuation.

Under the road construction program a total of 273 kilometres of roads were to be repaired in Armenia (26.5 kilometres had been already rehabilitated); the cost of the program was to total about $64 million.

On June 10 2009, Millennium Challenges Corporation decided to suspend the financing of the rural road construction program in Armenia as measures taken by Armenian government did not comply with democratic governance standards. N.V. –0—