...MCC and Ghana to Sign $547 Million Millennium Challenge Compact
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Chair of the Board of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), will give remarks at the signing of the Millennium Challenge Compact between the United States and the Republic of Ghana, on Tuesday, August 1, 2006 at 10:00 a.m., in the Benjamin Franklin Room, at the Department of State.

Ghanaian President John Kufuor and MCC Chief Executive Officer Ambassador John Danilovich will also make remarks. The $547 million Compact will be signed by Ambassador Danilovich and Ghana's Minister for Public Sector Reform Papa Kwesi Nduom.

The five-year, anti-poverty program aims to raise the income potential of farmers through increased production of high-value cash and basic food crops, an improved transportation network and development of food processing industries and handling facilities. The Compact also includes an initiative to improve access to education, water and sanitation, and electricity in rural areas.

The Millennium Challenge Corporation, a United States government corporation designed to work with some of the poorest countries in the world, is based on the principle that aid is most effective when it reinforces good governance, economic freedom, and investments in people that promote economic growth and elimination of extreme poverty.

This event will be open to the press.