MANILA: The United States’ foreign assistance agency Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) has started talks with Philippine officials for the threshold program.
MCC Chief Executive Officer Alice Albright said she met with Department of Finance (DOF) Secretary Ralph Recto last Feb. 1, more than a month after the MCC selected the Philippines as an eligible country for the threshold program.
‘So we spent the time with Secretary Recto and his colleagues really talking through the process and what the next steps are and how we get started. And in part, we’ll start working with the government on some diagnostic work to figure out what some of the key challenges might be,’ Albright told reporters during a press briefing at Fairmont Hotel in Makati City on Friday.
She said the initial meeting with the DOF would help both parties identify which programs in the Philippines will receive grants from MCC.
The MCC is a bilateral United States foreign aid agency established by the U.S. Congress in 2004. It provides th
ree types of grants: compacts, threshold programs, and concurrent impacts for regional investment.
For compacts, eligible countries receive financial aid from MCC for programs targeted at poverty reduction and stimulating economic growth.
Threshold programs are smaller-scale grants focused on improving policies.
Concurrent compacts, on the other hand, promote cross-border economic integration, trade, and collaboration.
‘The first step will be for the government to appoint what we call a national coordinator, which is the main counterparty that we will work with. But we can work as quickly as the government is able to work going forward, and we expect we’ve had some very good initial conversations, and we expect things to unfold very very quickly,’ Albright said.
MCC grants financial aid to developing countries that are committed to good governance, economic freedom, and investing in their people.
The Philippines was a threshold recipient from 2006 to 2009 with MCC grants amounting to USD20.7 million.
T
he Philippines threshold program targeted policy areas measured by two MCC eligibility indicators, Control of Corruption and Fiscal Policy.
Meanwhile, the country received its first compact grant of USD434 million which concluded in 2016.
Albright said the Philippines should remain committed to strengthening its governance to continue benefitting from the threshold program or elevate its status to a compact partner.
Source: Philippines News Agency
Hanoi: The Ministry of National Defence on February 5 held a virtual event connecting with the Vietnamese forces engaged in the United Nations peacekeeping mission on the threshold of the upcoming Lunar New Year (Tet) festival.
The event facilitated a connection between Hanoi’s Military Radio and Television Centre, Ho Chi Minh City’s 175 Military Hospital, and key UN peacekeeping missions, including the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA), the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), the UN Peacekeeping Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) and the UN headquarters in the US.
Chairing the event, Deputy Minister of National Defence Sen. Lieut. Gen Hoang Xuan Chien, who is also Chairman of the Defence Ministry’s steering committee on participation in the UN peacekeeping operations, extended his warm Tet wishes to the Vietnamese “blue beret” soldiers.
He reminded them to enjoy Tet while fulfilling their duties, especially ensuring the safety of the forces stationed in peacekeeping missions amid
conflicts and instability in Africa.
Exchanges between officers, soldiers and their relatives were also held at the event.
As a guest at the Abyei point, Minister of Education and Construction of Abyei region Nyinkwany Aguer Bol commended the Vietnamese peacekeeping force in Abyei for going beyond their mission, not only fulfilling their peacekeeping duties but also making specific contributions to assisting the local people.
Over the past nearly a decade, Vietnam has sent nearly 800 officers and soldiers to the UN peacekeeping missions at UN bases and headquarters, in alignment with the country’s commitment to realising the Party and State’s foreign policy of multilateralisation and diversification of external ties, and being a responsible member of the international community, in which the military and police forces have been at the forefront./.
Source: Vietnam News Agency