Fatema meets Oli, Nepal, requests for ratification of MCC programme

Kathmandu, Sept. 9

Vice President of Compact Operations of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Fatema Z. Sumar, arrived in Kathmandu on Thursday for a four-day visit to Nepal to facilitate the implementation of MCC-Nepal Infrastructure Programme.

She is leading a delegation, which includes Deputy Vice President of the MCC Jonathan Brooks, to explorer the ways to garner support for the ratification process of the Nepal Compact from the parliament.

She hold her first meeting with chairman of main opposition party CPN (UML) KP Sharma Oli at the latter’s residence in Balkot, Bhaktapur, on Thursday afternoon and urged him to take the programme forward for the ratification process. She said that the USA wanted to complete the process and implement the project.

In response, Oli said that his party was waiting for the position of the government on the matter. “The government has not asked our opinion on the MCC programme. We will give our views after the government clears its position,” he said, as informed by Dr. Rajan Bhattarai, a Central Committee Member of the CPN (UML) who accompanied Oli during the meeting.

Oli told Fatema that, earlier, his government had put efforts to facilitate the ratification and implementation of the project. He also said that the ruling coalition could ratify the project and move ahead since it has the majority in the parliament.

Fatema also met chairman of the CPN (Unified Socialist) Madhav Kumar Nepal at his party office in Singha Durbar Thursday evening. Party Secretary Gangalal Tuladhar said that Fatema cleared various issues about the MCC programme and said that it is not the part of the Indo-Pacific Strategy (IPS) and is not a military assistance.

During the meeting, Nepal said that the confusion about the nature of the support was created from the US side. He stated that the issue is an agenda of discussion in the ruling coalition and his party would have a say after the discussion with the coalition partners.

Tuladhar informed that Chair Nepal was for having more study and discussion on the MCC programme before making an opinion on behalf of the party.

Fatema is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, Chairman of CPN (MC) Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda, various political leaders, government officials, and business and community leaders.

According to the Embassy of the USA in Kathmandu, she will discuss the required next steps to implement the US$500 million MCC-Nepal infrastructure programme, address the clarification questions provided by the Ministry of Finance, and hear from the people of Nepal.

“She will specifically affirm: the MCC grant programme has no military component, will not impede on Nepal’s sovereignty, and Nepal’s Constitution will prevail over the agreement,” said the Embassy.

Earlier, in December 2019, the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) – Nepal, the implementing agency of the MCC grant programme in the country, had appealed to the parliament for the timely ratification of the project as it was set to kick off on  June 30, 2020.

But even after more than 14 months, there has been no progress in that direction rather the situation is worsened with various remours against the programme getting space in the media and social networks.

The US$ 630 million, $500 million from the MCC and $130 million from Nepal – programme, aims at developing large transmission lines, including Butwal-Gorakhpur cross-border transmission facility, and rehabilitate strategic roads.

The Electricity Transmission Project will build 312 km of 400 kV electricity transmission lines and three substations and provide technical assistance for the power sector in Nepal.

The 312 km of transmission line will pass through 30 municipalities of 10 districts. Altogether 856 towers will be installed to support the transmission lines.

The locations for the three substations are in Ratmate, Damauli and New Butwal.

The Road Maintenance Project aims to enhance current practices in the maintenance of Nepal’s strategic roads network and will provide technical assistance to the Department of Roads (DoR) and Roads Board Nepal.

The programme must be completed within five years from the date of its implementation and in case of inability to use up the budget, the remaining money would go back to the US government.

The MCC had set six conditions- listing of the programme as the national pride project, agreement between Nepal and India for cross-border transmission line, project implementation agreement between the government and MCC, ratification from the parliament and access to the construction site.

About 17 countries had already ratified the MCA from their parliament.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 10 September 2021.