Madagascar Development

Pressing lightly on the button of the central-control computer, Marie Ramampy from Madagascar surprisingly found the air-conditioner behind her was turned on immediately. "That's amazing," said Ramampy. "I only learned about the home network from the news before, but who can imagine that I'd see the real example here in Haier!" As a member of the delegation of ruling parties from nine African countries, Ramampy and her friends were visiting the Qingdao-based Haier Group Monday, a leading Chinese home appliance manufacturer. The delegation toured around 11 exhibition halls in Haier Group, seeing with their own eyes various kinds of household electrical appliances, such as TVs, refrigerators, air-conditioners, computers, mobile phones and DVDs. The African guests were greatly impressed by the smart designs and advanced technology of the products, and expressed their appreciation. "It is really incredible that Haier can manufacture almost anything we can i...

Washington -- President Bush is not a rock star or a producer but he has used the power of his presidency to aid Africans beset by the seemingly intractable challenges of poverty and disease more than anyone on the planet, according to two celebrity activists who are dedicated to keeping Africa's plight in the forefront of world attention. "[Bush] has actually done more than any American president for Africa," British producer Bob Geldof, who is the leading organizer of the "Live 8" concerts that are being held worldwide on July 2 to raise awareness of Africa's development needs, told Time Magazine recently. Bono, lead singer of the Irish band U2 and longtime activist for aid to Africa, echoed Geldof’s praise for President Bush as he told an American television interviewer June 26, "[Bush] has already doubled and tripled aid to Africa .… I think he has done an incredible job, his administration, on AIDS. 250,000 Africans are on anti-viral drugs; th...

Is it possible that the lemurs in Madagascar party it up during all-night raves? Even though the current box-office hit, "Madagascar," is an animated film, Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks, the creators of "Madagascar" have definitely helped to promote the "island oasis" of the real Madagascar. In addition to the movie phenomena, a priority of a project funded by the US-AID called Business And Market Expansion (BAMEX) is ramping up to help promote and increase the market presence of Madagascar spices, essential oils and handicrafts. Madagascar is the leading exporter of vanilla in the world and is an important producer of cloves, pepper, cinnamon, ginger, as well as endemic medical plants. By promoting these products and creating market linkages and innovative partnerships between U.S. and Malagasy companies, the biodiversity of Madagascar may be protected and celebrated by others around the world. Additionally, Madagascar small farmers and businesses may...

The prospects are there, but now it is a question of turning them to account. That is what faces Jubilee Platinum, which is listed on AIM (code JLP, market capitalisation £25 million or approximately $46 million) and whose strategy is to add shareholder value by bringing new platinum operations into production by way of successful exploration or acquisition, has announced the results of its latest geophysics programme over its platinum group metals deposit in Madagascar. And it looks as if there is the potential for a world-class prospect and drilling is to commence immediately. Jubilee recently raised £1.6 million in a conditional placing with a view to stepping up its drilling on the Tjate project in South Africa to run concurrently with the exploration work in Madagascar, where the company is to undertake geochemical and geophysical exploration as well as trenching and drilling at its three prospective sites; at Londokomania, at Pachoud and at Lanjanina. It is in respect of the firs...

China and Africa share a great potential of cooperation in such fields as investment, trade, technology, sustainable growth and human resources, senior officials of ruling parties of some African countries said in Beijing Wednesday. Officials of the ruling parties of Cameroon, Djibouti, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Madagascar, Niger, Rwanda, Seychelles and Togo attended a seminar on enhancing Sino-African cooperation in Beijing. The seminar, slated for June 20-23, is organized by the International Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee. The African attendants cited China as a reliable partner that African countries can count on, and said win-win for every side is the key feature of Africa-China cooperation. Marie-Louise Cecile Potter from the Seychelles People's Progressive Front said Africa is faced with both opportunities and challenges in the process of globalization. He said Africa has to take advantage of the process while avoiding disadvantages. He s...

Paul Applegarth's surprise resignation last week as chief executive of the Millennium Challenge Corporation resulted from falling confidence within the Bush administration that the flagship aid programme was fulfilling expectations, according to administration officials. The timing of the resignation was awkward for the administration, occurring just before the Group of Eight summit in Scotland next month. At the summit, President George W. Bush will promote the Millennium Challenge Account, overseen by the MCC, as the US's preferred way of raising aid flows to African countries. European proposals, in contrast, are for innovative financing schemes to increase aid, or new taxes. By Andrew Balls in Washington Published: June 22 2005 03:00 | Last updated: June 22 2005 03:00

Today, U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) Director Thelma Askey announced the award of a $370,366 grant to the Ministry of Energy and Mines of Madagascar to partially fund a study on the development of the Upstream Volobé Hydroelectric Power Project in Madagascar. To officially confer the award, Director Askey signed an agreement on behalf of the U.S. government. His Excellency Olivier Donat Andriamahefaparany, Minister of Energy and Mines, signed the grant agreement on behalf of the government of Madagascar. The Upstream Volobé project includes a proposed 90-megawatt facility that could support the development of a nickel mining facility in Madagascar and supply power for domestic consumption. Given Madagascar’s limited energy generation capacity, the government of Madagascar has prioritized the development of the project. The USTDA-funded study will examine the viability of the hydropower facility taking into consideration a variety of factors, including the geotechnical aspec...

This may see Rio Tinto move outside its North American and Australasian heartlands to new projects in Madagascar and Argentina.

WASHINGTON, Jun 27 (IPS) - U.S. President George W. Bush has been significantly exaggerating the amount of money his administration has provided in aid to sub-Saharan Africa, according to a new study released here Monday. Instead of a tripling of U.S. aid to Africa between 2000 and 2005, as Bush has frequently insisted, Washington has increased aid by only 56 percent in real terms, according to the report by the Brookings Institution. The report, entitled 'U.S. Foreign Assistance to Africa: Claims and Reality', is almost certain to increase pressure on Bush to announce a major new initiative to bolster development in the world's poorest continent in the run-up to the Group of Eight (G8) summit meeting in Gleneagles, Scotland, to be hosted by British Prime Minister Tony Blair Jul. 6-8. The pressure on Bush to be more forthcoming toward Africa has grown steadily despite his agreement to join a debt cancellation plan with other G8 nations that should benefit about a dozen of A...

Madagascar's national carrier, Air Madagascar, entrusted TV and video production company "blurr productions" and its Malagasy-born director, Harry Ravelomanantsoa, to produce a 30 second cinema commercial that is aimed at theaters around the globe. blurr productions is a Johannesburg-based company started in 2000 by Ravelomanantsoa with the idea of using Final Cut Pro as a platform; one that had not yet proven itself in the television industry, especially in conservative South Africa: "We started with the very first version of Final Cut Pro on a dual G4 workstation using Aurora's Igniter breakout box on Mac OS 9.It was virtually impossible to get this set up in South Africa at the time, but we shipped the whole system from London and hooked it to a BetacamSP player/recorder for broadcast quality purposes." After nearly five years of editing corporate videos, shorts, music videos and TV and cinema commercials on Final Cut Pro, blurr productions finally got th...

Forests and Family Planning in Madagascar, an award-winning 9-minute documentary by Population Action International, explores the work of Voahary Salama—an innovative local organization that works to reduce pressure on the environment while improving the health of the country’s population—and features rare interviews with local women who reveal their desire to have smaller families. The content of the film, which draws attention to the impact of rapid population growth on the country’s rural villages by offering a look at its fragile ecosystem, approaches poverty in Madagascar from a vital human perspective. If you are covering the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) and the work being done to eradicate poverty in sub-Saharan Africa, Finding Balance is a must-see. For additional information or to speak with a PAI expert, please contact Tawana Jacobs at tjacobs@popact.org or +1-202-557-3422. PAI is committed to advancing universal access to family planning and related health services and...

Air Madagascar, the national carrier of the Republic of Madagascar, has signed a contract for 2 new ATR 72-500 and 1 ATR 42-500 aircraft plus an option for 2 ATR-500 Series aircraft. This order was unveiled on the occasion of a press conference held today at the Paris Air Show. With this order, Air Madagascar will renew its current fleet of 3 ATR-42s with new generation models. The 2 ATR 72-500 aircraft are scheduled to be delivered in late 2005 and the ATR 42-500 aircraft in mid-2006. Berend Bruns, Chief Executive Officer of Air Madagascar declared: “We are satisfied with the operation of the ATR aircraft from the very beginning. They are particularly well adapted to our needs since we operate on a very dense domestic network but with limited but growing traffic. With this new order, we will benefit from a fuel-efficient technology, maintaining our fleet up to date with the latest standards of comfort for our customers and capability to grow with the market.” Equipped with the “Elegan...

On the occasion of the Day of the African Child, UNICEF, in collaboration with its sister UN agencies, launched the first-ever malagasy translation of the famous Facts for Life child survival guide. This guide aims at providing parents, care givers, young people, health workers, teachers and communicators with information on how to save and improve children’s lives. “Some sixty thousand children die each year in this country before their fifth birthday from preventable causes,” said UNICEF’s Representative Barbara Bentein during the launching ceremony. “Information contained in Facts for Life can help prevent those deaths. There is simply no reason why everyone should not have access to this information -- It is vital that every parent and everyone who works with parents around the country communicate these simple, easy to understand facts about child survival,” she added. Facts for Life is a joint publication of UNICEF, WHO, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNDP, UNAIDS, WFP and the World Bank. Over 15...

International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) has been awarded a 20-year concession for the operation and management of the port of Toamasina, Madagascar, the International Finance Corp. (IFC) said. ICTSI won the IFC-supervised bidding for the Madagascar port last month, besting a powerhouse of other world-class port operators such as AP Moller Finance, Hutchison Port Holdings, and the consortium of Malta Freeport, CMA, and CGM-Bollor. "This transaction is the result of the reform process that the government of Madagascar initiated three years ago with the support of the World Bank, which has been a key in developing a sustainable transport sector strategy in the country," the IFC said. The IFC is the private sector investment arm of the World Bank. The IFC said the winning bid was based on a single transparent financial criterion consisting of the highest royalty fee per 20-foot equivalent (TEU) container handled. Currently, the port of Toamasina accounts for over 9...

President Bush is intensifying efforts to help Africans suffering from war, famine and AIDS by agreeing to erase billions of dollars in international debt, dispatching two key White House officials to the region, and planning to announce more direct aid for Africa as early as next month, administration officials said. Under pressure from world leaders, including British Prime Minister Tony Blair, to do more, Bush has signed off on a deal with the British to forgive billions of dollars African nations owe to international organizations such as the World Bank, the officials said yesterday. World leaders appear likely to approve a debt forgiveness plan next month in Scotland, at an economic summit of the seven richest nations and Russia, known as the Group of Eight. In anticipation of the G8 meetings, Bush sent Michael J. Gerson and Kristen Silverberg, two of his top domestic policy advisers, to Africa for 10 days to review his AIDS initiative and other humanitarian efforts. "It'...

British officials said they were confident the world's most powerful financial ministers would reach a historic deal at their meeting in London this weekend -- although some differences remain between the Group of Eight (G8) major industrialized nations. UK Prime Minister Tony Blair -- current G8 president -- has demanded that poor countries' debts be cancelled and their aid doubled. He and U.S. President George W. Bush agreed this week in Washington that help on debt should be given only to countries ready to tackle corruption. The New York Times reported that the United States and Britain had reached an agreement on freeing 18 countries, mostly in Africa, from any obligation to pay $16.7 billion in debt. The countries are Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guyana, Honduras, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. The number of countries to be helped is a sticking point. Blair's spokesman said ea...

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects Madagascar's economy to grow by 6,3% in 2005 after achieving real gross domestic product of five percent in the last two year, a senior IMF official said this week. IMF's first deputy director Anne Krueger said Madagascar was benefiting from tough economic reforms but warned that current levels of growth were insufficient to meet Madagascar's goals of tackling poverty. "Everyone recognises Madagascar has performed well economically," Krueger said at the end of a two-day visit to Madagascar. "If it keeps up these policies, it will continue to produce positive results." The huge Indian Ocean island is one of the world's poorest countries, with three quarters of people living on less than a dollar a day. Krueger said soaring inflation was a big risk. Madagascar's inflation rate surged to 27% last year, compared to 3,1% in 2003 due high oil prices, a depreciation in Madagascar's currency and a sharp i...

Ms. Anne O. Krueger, First Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), made the following statement today in Antananarivo: "I am very glad to have to opportunity to make my first visit to Madagascar. Although very brief, the visit has given me the chance to have very productive discussions with President Marc Ravalomanana and senior members of the government and the central bank. I was also able to meet members of the donor community. And I was able to see at first hand some of the work being done by the Conseil de Developpement d'Andohatapenaka (CDA) in the provision of medical and educational assistance to some of those most in need. "Much progress has been made in Madagascar in recent years. I was able to congratulate President Ravalomanana for the successful completion of the economic program supported by the IMF's Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF). The government's program also enabled Madagascar to reach completion point und...

BANGKOK - Flagship carrier Thai Airways International has signed a code share agreement with Air Madagascar to boost ties between the two airlines and countries, Thai officials said on Monday. The agreement was signed to celebrate the first anniversary of Air Madagascar's direct flights to Bangkok. It means the Thai foreign ministry will open an outpost in the southern Indian Ocean nation's capital of Antananarivo to issue visas, said Thai Airway's executive vice-president of the commercial department, Vasing Kittikul. Thai Airways will also help Air Madagascar with passenger handling, ramp, cargo and flight operations, and some parts of aircraft servicing, the Thai Airways statement said. Air Madagascar presently operates two direct flights per week to Bangkok. It was not immediately clear if Thai Airways aircraft would be used on the route, or when the code share would come into effect. June 6, 2005, 9.45 pm (Singapore time)