Timor-Leste with high performance in the Millennium Challenge Corporation indicators for the year 2022
The Minister of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Fidelis Manuel Leite Magalhães, met with the Chargé d’Affairs of the United States of America Embassy in Timor-Leste, Thomas Daley, on November 8th, 2021, at the Government Palace, in Dili.
During the meeting, the diplomat announced to the Minister that Timor-Leste recorded a high performance in the ranking of political indicators selected by the US agency Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) to determine the eligibility of countries to its assistance programs during the 2022 financial year.
The results of the analysis, that will be officially published tomorrow, indicate that of the 20 indicators analysed, 15 were positive, one more than in the previous year. This figure is the highest ever and allows Timor-Leste to maintain its eligibility to access MCC partnership programs.
The selection process is carried out using information from independent external entities to ensure an objective comparison of all candidate countries.
The meeting was also attended by the National Executive Director of the Compact Development Team (CDT-TL), Ambassador Constâncio Pinto, who is responsible for the compact development team of MCC-funded development projects.
The MCC Board of Directors selected Timor-Leste for a Compact Program in December 2017 and Minister Fidelis Manuel Leite Magalhães signed an Initial Financing Agreement with MCC, in 2018, to establish a team (CDT-TL), embedded in the Millennium Challenge Compact program, responsible for identifying the economic sectors to be developed during the implementation of the program.
CDT-TL and MCC are now in the process of conducting the final studies that will provide the necessary data and information to complete the details and scope of the design of the selected projects for Water, Sanitation and Drainage and for Education .
Despite the constraints imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, CDT-TL, with the support of MCC, continues to work towards finalising the feasibility studies, so that the compact agreement with the MCC can soon be signed.
