YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 29, NOYAN TAPAN. The RA Minister of Finance and Economy Vardan Khachatrian and the Armenian Representative of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Alex Rasin on September 29 exchanged official letters on the Millennium Challenge Fund - Armenia Program's officially coming into force. This ceremony put into effect the compact signed between the Armenian government and MCC on March 27, 2006, according to which Armenia has been allocated a 235 mln-dollar grant for poverty reduction through economic growth and rural communities development. The program's main directions are repiars of roads and irrigation systems in rural areas, introduction of new irrigation and efficient crop-growing technologies in agriculture, use of post-harvest marketing systems to make agricultural produce more accessible in the market, and provision of development loans. According to the press service of the RA Ministry of Finance and Economy, this is the largest grant program in Armenia.

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