US embassy cable - 05SANSALVADOR3125

UNCLAS SAN SALVADOR 003125 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR INR/R/MR, WHA/CEN, WHA/PDA, R 
AMEMBASSIES FOR PAS, POL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KMDR, ES, KPAO, MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE ACCOUNT 
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE ACCOUNT 
 
1. Reactions were enthusiastic to the Millennium Challenge 
Corporation (MCC) selection  of El Salvador and Namibia as 
the two lower-middle income countries who are eligible to 
submit proposals for possible MCA funding.  Press coverage 
of the decision was ample, mostly accurate, and included the 
explanation that El Salvador does not have the funds yet but 
has merely passed a crucial step in the process and must 
submit its proposal and receive approval. 
 
2. On Frente a Frente, the most-watched morning television 
talk show on Channels 2,4, and 6, members of the Salvadoran 
National Development Commission expressed satisfaction about 
the decision as well as agreement with the principles behind 
the MCA.  Minister of Finance Guillermo Suarez Lopez 
commented that the MCC sends correct and very important 
incentives by providing grant funds for lower-middle income 
countries who have managed their finances responsibly. 
Other Commission members present lauded President Saca's 
leadership in stimulating a policy dialogue at the highest 
possible level and securing the support of President Chirac 
to support countries like El Salvador, and they noted that 
the northern zone project for which the country seeks MCC 
funding is transformational and has been planned since 
before the civil conflict. 
 
3. Excerpts from commentary in print media follow: 
 
"We qualified for the Millennium Account" 
 
On Wednesday, November 09, 2005, the main editorial of 
moderate La Prensa Grfica (circ. 110,000) read: 
 
"Although the country had been working in making this access 
real, everything suggests that the meeting of President Saca 
and President Bush, in Mar del Plata, last Saturday, was the 
decisive final push. It is clear that the relation of close 
understanding between the two governments has produced the 
first great fruit based on our development. 
 
This decision is an award to El Salvador for its efforts in 
its institutional reconstruction, its political 
stabilization, and its will toward development. 
 
Our country has managed to go from a sort of traditional 
historical trap to an exercise of learning to coexist in a 
pacific and progressive manner which can well be described 
as exemplary, in spite of all there is to do still. Being 
chosen among 29 countries of the world is by itself an 
unprecedented distinction. 
 
In other countries, when the possibility of acceding to this 
aid arose, they started thinking about what to propose. In 
our case, the initial advantage, of great importance by the 
way, is that the Government went with one of the mega- 
projects already agreed upon by the National Commission of 
Development: the construction of the Longitudinal Highway of 
the North, with all its productive and social effects." 
 
 "Millennium Account and belated budget" 
 
On Wednesday, November 09, 2005, the main editorial of 
moderate Diario El Mundo (circ. 40,000) read: 
 
Although the funds are shared with Namibia, the donation to 
El Salvador is an incentive to carry out the National 
Development Plan which was facing obstacles to 
implementation with what is starting to look like blockage 
to the approval of the 2006 General Budget due to the 
upcoming municipal and Legislative Assembly elections. 
 
It makes us happy to learn about the donation for El 
Salvador being approved by the Millennium Challenge 
Corporation. The grant will contribute to the construction 
of the longitudinal highway of the North and will connect 
the departments of La Union and Morazn, a step towards the 
development and improved quality of life that are so needed 
in El Salvador." 
BARCLAY