KATHMANDU: Executive Director of Millennium Challenge Account Nepal (MCA-N) Khadga Bahadur Bisht has remarked that time was running out for Parliamentary ratification of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Compact.

Bisht said that the Compact should be endorsed through Parliament soon as the works should be started from June 30.

Speaking at a program organized here by MCA-N on Friday, Bisht opined that the Compact should have been endorsed already.

“The project should be started on June 30. If not, a new process should be started for a new date. So, the Compact should be ratified at the soonest,” he maintained.

Informing that the Compact has gone into implementation after being ratified by parliament in 17 countries, Bisht said that Nepal should not delay further.

The  $500 million MCC Compact was long sought by the Nepal government and was one of the programs signed by Gyanendra Bahadur Karki, then Finance Minister during the Sher Bahadur Deuba-led government in 2016.

MCC and Nepal signed the Compact to spur economic growth through investments in electricity and transportation—areas that the government has identified as critical and that is expected to make Nepal more prosperous and resilient.