Sri Lanka meets performance standards in 2017 MCC scorecard

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.