OREANDA-NEWS. December 02, 2009. This was announced at the joint briefing of the Prime Minister of Moldova Vladimir Filat and Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary U.S. Ambassador in Moldova Asif J. Chaudhry. It is planned that the document in Washington will be signed by the head of the Moldovan Government Vladimir Filat and U.S. State Secretary Hillary Clinton.

As it was noted, on November 30, the Board of Directors of the American Millennium Challenge Corporation approved the program Compact, providing allocation of grant of US262 million within five years to Moldova. It is planned that within the next two weeks it will be approved by the U.S. Congress that would give a "green light for signing of this document”. In particular, US 132.8 million will be allocated for reconstruction and modernization of roads.

The talk is about restoration of 93 km of road Sarateni-Soroca and completion of technical and economic feasibility of the road Drochia-Otaci. It is planned that US 101.8 million will be used for installing 11 modern centralized irrigation systems in agriculture at the area of 15,5 thousand ha, supporting reforms in irrigation and opening credit lines for Moldavian farmers.

It is also planned to allocate US 3.5 million for monitoring and program assessment. Administration and audit of the program will require US 23.8 million. The agreement should be ratified by the Parliament and the government should create the Millennium Challenge fund which will be responsible for implementing the program and its monitoring results.

The Prime Minister Vladimir Filat stressed that the program will be implemented under strict monitoring of the Moldovan authorities, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, the American Embassy, which will monitor the effectiveness of spending. U.S. Ambassador in Moldova Asif J. Chaudhry said that the U.S. considers it important to support the development of Moldovan economy and democracy and he is very proud to be a partner of Moldova in achieving these goals.

The Prime Minister Vladimir Filat thanked U.S. authorities for their continued support to Moldova and its citizens and noted that USA is always close to Moldovan people. He stressed the importance of supporting such important sectors of Moldova as transport and agriculture.