Cabinet approves MCC Grant of USD 480mn

The Cabinet today approved the implementation of a US$ 480 million MCC Grant on a proposal made by Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera.

In a statement, the Finance Ministry said this consisted of grant funds for traffic management in Colombo, road construction island-wide and land administration improvements covering the whole country.

“These compact programmes to be funded by this project have been developed by the Sri Lankan officials of the line ministries and departments based on the needs of the country. The Sri Lankan Government has the option of amending the identified projects even after the signing of the agreement.  

Sri Lanka is the 37th recipient of such grant funds from the US. The Minister of Finance will sign the agreement in the near future as it was confirmed by the Cabinet today, the implementation will begin in early 2020,” it said. 

The Ministry said this was a great victory for the government and augurs well for the future.

“Sri Lanka began negotiation with the MCC in 2001 at the direction of the then Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe. MCC negotiations were led by the Ministry of Finance and the MCC compact developed and finalised by the Compact Development Team of the Prime Minister’s office,” it said.