MCC: THE LOWDOWN

Exactly what is the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC)? To put it simply, the MCC was created by the US Congress as an independent foreign assistance agency with the aim of fighting against global poverty. Already, it has donated 13 billion dollars to 29 countries.

Top recipients of American benevolence had been Indonesia which had received 600 million dollars, Mongolia with two grants of 284 million in 2007 plus another grant of 350 million dollars, Nepal has received 500 million dollars and the Philippines 433 million dollars. The strategic importance of Lanka to the Americans can be measured by the size of the grant she is offered which is 480 million dollars. And, by the way, none of these countries have been invaded and their sovereignty strangulated as a result of accepting this piece of American largess

But this gift is not summa money. It comes with strings attached as to the manner in which the money given is to be used. It is not given to refill a bare larder or to be spent on purchasing another fleet of luxury cars for the new Parliament’s MPs in May. Or even to build another power plant. As it does with other countries it gives money to, the MCC decides the areas money should be spent on.

The MCC grant to Lanka will focus on two projects. One is the land project with a budget of US$67 million, it will focus on five activities. One is to compile a complete inventory of all state lands. The second is to improve the evaluation system of all lands. The third is to build on the Government’s e-Land Registry initiative and to improve the Deeds Registry by digitising existing records. The fourth is to improve tenure security for all land holders by moving properties from the Deeds system to the Title Registration system. The fifth activity is the funding of research in support of measures to improve land administration policies.

The other project of the Millennium Challenge Corporation is transport. The cost of this project is $350 million. Basically, it is to upgrade approximately 131 km of interprovincial roads in the Central Ring Road Network connecting the Central, Sabaragamuwa, and Uva Provinces with ports and markets in the Western Province.

At a meeting held on April 26th last year in Washington D.C. the US Government decided to assist the Sri Lanka Government in addressing two of the country's binding constraints to economic growth: (1) inadequate transport logistics infrastructure and planning; and (2) lack of access to land for agriculture, the services sector, and industrial investors and to increase the relative efficiency and capacity of the road network and bus system in the Colombo region and to reduce the cost of transporting passengers and goods.