DILI (TOP) – On November 5, U.S. Ambassador Kathleen Fitzpatrick met with Minister of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers Fidelis Leite Magalhães and the National Executive Director of the Compact Development Team-Timor-Leste (CDT-TL) Ambassador Constâncio da Conceição Pinto to congratulate Timor-Leste on passing the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) governance scorecard in 2020.
During the meeting, Ambassador Fitzpatrick praised the remarkable progress that CDT-TL and U.S. MCC have made to finalize the compact – a multimillion-dollar grant agreement to reduce poverty through economic growth – in the face of the global pandemic.
While global travel restrictions have slowed progress, the U.S. and Timor-Leste teams have worked diligently to advance the technical work required to finalize the two compact projects. The projects include a water, sanitation, and drainage project to reduce Timor-Leste’s diseases brought on by contaminated water and an education project to improve the quality of secondary education.
In the last few months alone, the CDT-TL and U.S. MCC have brought state of the art oceanographic monitoring equipment to Dili to collect data to finalize the design of the water, sanitation, and drainage project. They have also launched a rigorous study to design the education program.
Over the coming months, MCC and the Government of Timor-Leste will continue to develop and appraise the proposed projects, with a targeted compact signing in 2021. (pr)
