Friday, 12 June 2009
Today a planned session of Millennium Challenge Account - Armenia SNCO Governing Council took place, presided at by council head, RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan.
The Governing Council discussed and approved the set of instruments under a 12th request for disbursement to be submitted to the Millennium Challenge Corporation, inclusive of the quarterly reports and other working documents.
MCA-Armenia SNCO Executive Director Ara Hovsepyan noted that under the mentioned request, the MCA-Armenia expects to be allocated USD 8,723,632 next quarter (July - September). The per-activity breakup of expenditures under this 12th disbursement will be as follows: Irrigated Agriculture – USD 7,831,822, Monitoring and Evaluation – the balance of the requested sum. Ara Hovsepyan said that most of the funds available under the Irrigated Agriculture program component will be used to design and restore water-mains, develop new gravity systems, build new tertiary canals. Farmers will get USD 1 million through lending entities.
At its June 10, 2009 meeting, the Millenium Challenge Corporation decided to stop funding projects under the first package of Rural Road Rehabilitation Activity upon completion of the ones co-funded by the government of Armenia. A total of resources equivalent to USD 12, 026, 778 have so far been contributed by the Government for implementation of works under this activity.
By the end of this quarter, actual and planned (for the month of June) spending under the MCA-Armenia program will rise to USD 37, 571, 449.
Once approved by GC Chairman, RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan, the request package will be sent off to the MCC for consideration.
The Governing Council similarly discussed and approved information on the World Bank take-over of water-main construction projects in Armavir marz and Talin region and on the amended volumes of rehabilitation work for 6 water-mains, as well as the draft contracts on performance assessment for Rural Road Rehabilitation, Irrigated Agriculture and Water to Market activities of the MCA-Armenia program.
The meeting agenda featured discussion of a number of other items of topical interest.
