Crisis-hit Sri Lanka cabinet okays US grant after rejecting $480 mln MCC deal in 2020
ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka Cabinet has given green light to a proposal submitted by the Prime Minister to obtain a grant from the United States of America, nearly two years after President Gotanaya Rajapaksa rejected a $480 million from the U.S.-based Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC).
The $57 million comes through two agreements signed between the Governments of Sri Lanka and U.S. to supply funds to strengthen the cooperation for democratic good governance and social integrity’ and to create a sustainable and covered economic development ’
The proposal by the Premier Ranil Wickramasinghe suggested signing a new agreement for implementation of a new programme for financing 57 million US dollars by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
The project has been named as ‘The Programme for a Democratic, Prosperous Sri Lanka with the Ability to Survive Amidst Disasters’ until the year 2026, paying the preliminary attention on the fields of productive democratic governance, growth based on a secure market and strengthening the resources required to sustain pressure and stress.
President Rajapaksa in November 2021 said that his government will never sign the MCC agreement proposed by the U.S soon after the then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit. However, the U.S. cancelled the MCC offer to Sri Lanka one month after Rajapaksa’s statement. (Colombo/ June 28/2022)
