Countries that want a slice of the new $5 billion pie the Bush administration has set aside for economic development and alleviating poverty will have to compete with each other for it, officials proposed Monday. Legislation to form the new program, known as the Millennium Challenge, will be introduced in January. The proposal represents a 50 pc increase in US foreign aid, which has fallen sharply in real terms since the end of the Cold War. However, the US will still remain the least generous foreign aid supplier — ranked No 22 out of the 22 industrialised counties. The Millennium Challenge Account will raise the amount of aid money from a mere 0.1 pc of GDP to 0.15 pc.Countries chosen for millennium grants would have to rank in the top 50 pc of applicants in 16 indicators designed to promote good governance, investment in health and education, and free trade. They include political and civil freedoms, levels of spending on education and health, the overall credit rating and budget deficit. Any country with a high level of corruption would be automatically ineligible, the officials said. (LATWP)
