Praia, Sept. 3, 2024 (Lusa) - The government of Cabo Verde expects to present within no more than two years its plans for spending the package of the third financial compact from the United States, the amount of which is not yet known, an official source announced on Tuesday.
"There's still a long way to go," said the coordinator of the Programme Development Unit (UDP), Joana Brito, in Praia. "Normally, between 18 months and two years we'll have the package ready for the government to present to the board of directors of the MCC [Millennium Challenge Corporation] and negotiate the compact."
The government has defined two areas of work, she explained, the first being inter-island, international and intermodal connectivity and the second digital connectivity.
These areas were defined within the guidelines of the Strategic Sustainable Development Plan - PEDS II, with all the studies that have been carried out in this area now being collated, said the same source.
"We're contacting all the institutions and moving on to the phase of analysing the constraints. After that, there's a process of drawing up projects in both areas," Brito added.
She noted that the total amount is not yet known and will depend on the work that will be done until the project is finalised.
"The entire private sector will be directly involved in this process, as will civil society," she stressed. "This form of consultation will be implemented throughout the development of the compact and we will certainly have many opportunities to give an update on the development of this programme."
For his part, Cabo Verde's Deputy Prime Minister Olavo Correia emphasised that the government had decided to allocate the third US compact "to a priority": in land, air, sea, digital and human connectivity.
"If we manage, with the support of the compact, to guarantee the best level of service, the best offer, governance based on sustainability and manage to put connectivity at the service of Cabo Verde's diversification and economic growth dynamics, we will be providing the United States with a great service to the Cabo Verdean nation," he said.
In December 2023, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) announced that the United States' third compact with Cabo Verde under its official development assistance programme would be for regional economic integration.
At the same time, Cabo Verde's prime minister, Ulisses Correia e Silva, said that the new package would be for five years, and expressed the country's commitment to development.
In 2005, the MCC, through the Praia-based Millennium Challenge Account (MCA), granted Cabo Verde its first aid package, totalling €84.6 million, which lasted until 2010, aimed at building up the country's infrastructure.
Two years later, it provided a second financial compact, worth €50.9 million and running until 2017, to improve the management of water resources and sanitation, as well as property management services.
The Millennium Challenge Corporation is an autonomous US government agency that works to reduce global poverty through economic growth. Created in 2004, it provides grants and time-limited assistance to countries that fulfil rigorous standards of good governance, the fight against corruption and respect for democratic rights.
ROZS/ARO // ARO.
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