Sri Lanka meets performance standards in 2017 MCC scorecard

Monday, 7 November 2016 00:35 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The US Government’s Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Thursday released its fiscal year 2017 scorecards and Sri Lanka has met high performance standards in all three policy categories.

The MCC scorecard, a key component in the agency’s annual competitive selection process that determines which countries will receive MCC development funds, assesses the performance of a country in three areas - Ruling Justly, Investing in People and Encouraging Economic Freedom. In the ‘Economic Freedom’ category, Sri Lanka ranked well in the areas of Inflation (70%), Regulatory Quality (89%), Gender in the Economy (100%) and Business Start-up (63%).

Areas requiring more work were Fiscal Policy (15%), Trade Policy (41%), Land Rights and Access (29%) and Access to Credit (19%).

In the ‘Ruling Justly’ category, Sri Lanka ranked excellently on Rule of Law (89%), Government Effectiveness (81%) and Control of Corruption (67%), and also well on Political Rights with a score 23 and Civil Liberties 32. Only Freedom of Information (26%) required improvement.

In the ‘Investing in People’ category, Sri Lanka ranked well with Immunization Rates (100%), Child Health (96%), Girls’ Secondary Education Enrollment Rate (72%) and Natural resources Protection (78%). Health Expenditure (15%) and Primary Education required more work.

Sri Lanka is a candidate country in the Low Income Category to receive economic assistance from the Millennium Challenge Corporation. Once MCC partners with a country through a compact or threshold program, investments go toward projects like power, clean water, land rights and roads that lead to economic growth and help people lift themselves out of poverty.