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Part 2
REMARKS BY MCC CEO AMBASSADOR JOHN
DANILOVICH
January 29, 2008
..Continued.
In Ghana, where
the compact complements agriculture and
infrastructure investments in rural
communities by providing over 100 new and
rehabilitated education facilities, 900
additional water points, and electricity to
12 agro-processing facilities.
It is evident in
the threshold program in Malawi that
supports anticorruption efforts. These
efforts helped Malawi improve its
performance on the control of corruption
indicator, now making the country
compact-eligible. Each of these programs
underway in Africa creates a firm foundation
for reducing poverty and stimulating growth
and development.
For African
economies to grow and integrate with the
global economy they must build upon this
foundation for the future. This requires,
in our view at MCC, three fundamental
ingredients: the right policies, capacity,
and private enterprise.
First, for
economies to grow, African partner countries
must continue building the right policy
framework. With our 17 policy indicators,
MCC measures commitment to good governance,
economic freedoms, investments in education
and health, control of corruption, a
regulatory and fiscal climate favorable to
business development, civil liberties, the
rule of law, land rights, and the protection
of natural resources. We are seeing our
African partners enact the often difficult
policy reforms necessary not just to qualify
for and remain eligible for MCC aid but,
even more important, to do what is best for
their citizens and to stimulate private
sector activities.
Second, for
economies to grow, African partner countries
must continue building their capacity. Our
funding agreements are short—five years for
compacts and two years for threshold
programs. Success at MCC is not measured by
our length of stay in an African partner
country but, rather, by how effectively we
help create sustainable conditions for our
partners to lead their development
agendas—from designing a proposal for
funding based on consultations with all
segments of their society through
implementation. These are demanding
expectations, but our partner countries are
meeting the challenge and are motivated to
develop new capabilities. They know what
policies are critical and what institutions
need to be strengthened or created to
sustain development. For example, Ghana
itself identified the lack of adequately
trained procurement specialists as one of
its obstacles to successful development.
Ghana applies part of its MCC investment
toward a procurement capacity-building
initiative designed to strengthen the
effectiveness of procurement entities to
help overcome this particular barrier to
development. Now, the training of
procurement professionals across the country
is underway.
And, third, for
economies to grow, African partner countries
must engage the private sector. Because MCC
demands performance on indicators evaluating
fiscal, monetary, regulatory, and trade
factors, including the costs and days
required to start a business, we are
fostering conditions to expand trade and
commerce, promote local entrepreneurship,
attract investment capital, and encourage
private enterprise.
By insisting on
good policy performance and by building
capacity, we are helping our partner
countries sustain those conditions. Both MCC
and our African partner countries want
development assistance to be replaced by the
self-sustaining economic activity driven by
the private sector itself, which is the true
engine of growth and poverty alleviation.
Our African
partner countries are open for business, and
this, ultimately, will drive sustainable
growth that will deliver results for the
poor. I invite those of you here this
evening from the business community to look
closely at MCC investments in our African
partner countries to see what opportunities
are being created for complementary or
parallel investments of your own. MCC’s
significant investments to build
infrastructure, increase agricultural
productivity, and improve the business
climate create opportunities for the private
sector to grow. As the finance minister of
Indonesia says, the real draw of being an
MCC partner is receiving the MCC “good
housekeeping seal of approval,” which sends
a powerful signal to private investors that
conditions are swiftly improving in MCC
countries for investing and doing business.
By leveraging MCC assistance to promote
sound policy performance, to build capacity,
and to create a jumping-off point for
private enterprise, African partner
countries are equipping themselves to escape
poverty and compete effectively in a global
economy of opportunity.
Ultimately, we
share a common goal. MCC invests resources
in African countries committed to this
shared vision of economic success. Through
the innovation of the MCC model, through the
MCC programs underway throughout Africa
today, and through MCC’s ways of helping
African economies connect to the global
economy by insisting on good policies,
strong capacity, and private enterprise, we
are making the promise of poverty reduction
through economic growth a reality in Africa.
The Millennium
Challenge Corporation and our African
partner countries will continue to work
toward our common purpose: reducing poverty
through sustainable economic growth and, as
a result, improving the lives of the poor.
I want to thank
you again for inviting me here this evening
and for your ongoing interest in, and
support for, the Millennium Challenge
Corporation’s significant work in Africa. I
look forward to continuing our dialogue, and
would be happy to take your questions.
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