The Armenian Government and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on Friday signed an anti-corruption strategy agreement as part of the efforts to assist in the country’s capacity building in the fight against corruption.



The deal is part of the United States’ assistance to the Armenian Government’s 2015-2018 Anti-Corruption strategy. The project’s total cost is US $806.390, of which $749.110 will be a compensation of expenses by the United States and $57,280 – a grant investment, reports the Government’s press service.



On behalf of the Republic of Armenia, the document was signed by David Harutyunyan, Minister-Chief of Staff at the Government. On behalf of the US Government, the signatory was Karen R Hilliard, the USAID mission director in the country.



The project is aimed to offer support to the Armenian Government in benefiting directly from top-class international and/or local technical assistance in the activities towards drafting a road map and implementing anti-corruption strategies in areas such as education, state revenues, healthcare and police services.



The project’s intended timeframes are between February 5, 2016 and April 5 2017.



The ceremony of signing the agreement was attended also by Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan who hailed the initiative. “Our approaches coincide, so we need to do everything possible to succeed. We highly appreciated the United States’ efforts in the areas of Armenia’s development, civil society building and human rights protection, and attach importance to continuous cooperation,” he added.



Hailing the Armenian Government’s consistent effort, the USAID official, for her part, expressed the US Government’s support to the Armenian government’s transparency and civil society building initiatives. Agreeing that the USAID’s cooperation with the Armenian Government has always been effective in most different sectors, Ms Hiliard expressed belief that the anti-corruption project will be crowned with success, increasing transparency and accountability and promoting real changes to improve the standards of living in Armenia.