MEDIA REACTION: MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE ACCOUNT

UNCLAS SAN SALVADOR 003125

SIPDIS

STATE FOR INR/R/MR, WHA/CEN, WHA/PDA, R
AMEMBASSIES FOR PAS, POL

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KMDR ES KPAO MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE ACCOUNT
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE ACCOUNT


1. Reactions were enthusiastic to the Millennium Challenge
Corporation (MCC) selection of El Salvador and Namibia as
the two lower-middle income countries who are eligible to
submit proposals for possible MCA funding. Press coverage
of the decision was ample, mostly accurate, and included the
explanation that El Salvador does not have the funds yet but
has merely passed a crucial step in the process and must
submit its proposal and receive approval.


2. On Frente a Frente, the most-watched morning television
talk show on Channels 2,4, and 6, members of the Salvadoran
National Development Commission expressed satisfaction about
the decision as well as agreement with the principles behind
the MCA. Minister of Finance Guillermo Suarez Lopez
commented that the MCC sends correct and very important
incentives by providing grant funds for lower-middle income
countries who have managed their finances responsibly.
Other Commission members present lauded President Saca's
leadership in stimulating a policy dialogue at the highest
possible level and securing the support of President Chirac
to support countries like El Salvador, and they noted that
the northern zone project for which the country seeks MCC
funding is transformational and has been planned since
before the civil conflict.


3. Excerpts from commentary in print media follow:

"We qualified for the Millennium Account"

On Wednesday, November 09, 2005, the main editorial of
moderate La Prensa Grfica (circ. 110,000) read:

"Although the country had been working in making this access
real, everything suggests that the meeting of President Saca
and President Bush, in Mar del Plata, last Saturday, was the
decisive final push. It is clear that the relation of close
understanding between the two governments has produced the
first great fruit based on our development.

This decision is an award to El Salvador for its efforts in
its institutional reconstruction, its political
stabilization, and its will toward development.

Our country has managed to go from a sort of traditional
historical trap to an exercise of learning to coexist in a
pacific and progressive manner which can well be described
as exemplary, in spite of all there is to do still. Being
chosen among 29 countries of the world is by itself an
unprecedented distinction.

In other countries, when the possibility of acceding to this
aid arose, they started thinking about what to propose. In
our case, the initial advantage, of great importance by the
way, is that the Government went with one of the mega-
projects already agreed upon by the National Commission of
Development: the construction of the Longitudinal Highway of
the North, with all its productive and social effects."

"Millennium Account and belated budget"

On Wednesday, November 09, 2005, the main editorial of
moderate Diario El Mundo (circ. 40,000) read:

Although the funds are shared with Namibia, the donation to
El Salvador is an incentive to carry out the National
Development Plan which was facing obstacles to
implementation with what is starting to look like blockage
to the approval of the 2006 General Budget due to the
upcoming municipal and Legislative Assembly elections.

It makes us happy to learn about the donation for El
Salvador being approved by the Millennium Challenge
Corporation. The grant will contribute to the construction
of the longitudinal highway of the North and will connect
the departments of La Union and Morazn, a step towards the
development and improved quality of life that are so needed
in El Salvador."
BARCLAY