Madagascar Development

"The friendly cooperation between China and Madagascar has entered a new phase of development," said Cao Gangchuan, Chinese minister of national defense when holding talks with his Madagascan counterpart Behajaina Petera in Beijing Tuesday. Cao said that China and Madagascar have experienced sustained, stable and friendly cooperation since the two established diplomatic relations. "China and Madagascar keep increasing high-level visits and strengthening the friendship between the armed forces of the two countries", he said, adding "with joint efforts, the bilateral military relationship will make further progress." He expressed his gratitude for Madagascar's adherence to the one-China policy and its firm support for China on human rights issues. During the talks, Cao also briefed Behajaina on China's views toward current international situation, its policies on national defense and its military development. Behajaina said the two countries have mai...

JOHN CASSIDY: Hi. I’m John Cassidy from the New Yorker. This is Professor Jeffrey Sachs from Columbia and many other places. My first job is to introduce Jeffrey. Just as a matter of interest—I mean, he doesn’t really need any introduction. Is there anybody in the room who doesn’t know of Jeffrey and his work? [Laughter] I’m not—I don’t see any hands up. So, it’ll be a very brief introduction. Jeffrey, as TIME magazine said many years ago, is probably the best-known economist in the world. I first came across him when I was an undergraduate. One of the great things about Jeffrey is he’s always been interested in the big sort of political-economic issues. I remember “stagflation”[economic stagnation and inflation]. I remember Jeffrey made his academic reputation, I think, on that with [economist] Michael Bruno, among others. And that was a big issue back then, obviously. Then he went to Poland, Bolivia—in fact, there may not be a country in the world he hasn’t been to. I noticed he said...

It is no wonder that the country-island Madagascar -- known for its extremely unique biodiversity -- also produces some of the best smelling and promising therapeutic aromatherapy oils in the world. According to aroma-therapists, these oils have the potential to not only enhance our environments, but also to affect our minds, mood states, and possibly also alter our biochemistry and aid in healing. Madagascar is recognized as holding tremendous potential for the development of new products in the essential oils, dietary supplement, functional food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic & body care, and handicraft markets due to the fact that 80% of its flora and fauna is endemic -- meaning so unique that they are found no where else in the world. The exotic essential oils of Madagascar are now making their way into U.S. and European businesses thanks to a project funded by US-AID called Business and Market Expansion (BAMEX). This project is aimed at helping to promote and increase the world mar...

Livingstone, Aug 18, ZANA - The president of Madagscar Marc Ravalomanana is expected in Livingstone on Saturday on a private visit. This is according to a letter written by First Secretary at the Zambian embassy in Pretoria and copied to southern province permanent secretary Darius Hakayobe and chief immigration officer for southern province. And according to a letter from the embassy of Madagascar in Pretora, president Ravalomanana will pay a visit at Chobe National park in Kasane in Botswana and the Victoria Falls in Livingstone from August 19 to August 21, 2005. Mr Ravalomanana is expected to depart from Gaborone by road to Zambia via Kazungula. According to the programme, Mr Ravalomanana will be accompanied by his wife Lalao Ravalomanana, the ambassador of Madagascar in Pretoria Yvan Randrlasandra Triniony, and his two sons Tojo and Mike Tsara and other senior officials.

The Big Lottery Fund has announced a series of international grants for clean water projects totalling almost £4m this week. Divided among nine UK-based organisations, the money will go to resource programmes in poverty stricken communities across countries such as India, Madagascar, Cambodia, Tanzania and various African nations. The latest funding brings the total number of awards for overseas charity work to 690, with a value of £167.8m. London-based CAFOD secured a grant of more than £300,000 for a sustainable natural resource management project in rural Cambodia. Julia Metcalfe from CAFOD commented; "Securing this funding provides a significant opportunity for CAFOD's partner, Development Partnership in Action (DPA), to strengthen the work being done with vulnerable and poor indigenous communities living in rural North East Cambodia. The project will support families and communities to secure access to community land and forest and help to ensure their future livelihood a...

The Bush Administration’s new agency for tackling global poverty — the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) — has gotten off to a rocky start. Lex Rieffel and James W. Fox, authors of a new Brookings Institution study, have examined the MCC’s accomplishments and failures to date. They recommend several reforms, as well as a good dose of patience, to make the endeavor work. The MCC, in existence for all but three years, has been seriously wounded. Congressional committees have once again sharply cut funding for the MCC from its requested appropriation level - for the third year in a row. And the MCC's first chief executive officer, Paul Applegarth, resigned under fire in mid-June 2005. A permanent successor - Ambassador John Danilovich - has now been proposed and will have to confront several pressing issues to ensure a successful future for the MCC. President Bush's proposal in March 2002 to create the Millennium Challenge Corporation surprised the world by its size and bold...

Ramsamy told Mmegi that Madagascar was yesterday welcomed to SADC in a move that demonstrates the deepening of regional integration. “It shows that the bloc is improving its economic strength. Madagascar is coming with a huge market potential. The advantages are enormous,” he said. Madagascar has a population of over 17 million and is a renown coffee exporter. Meanwhile, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Serwalo Tumelo said it is a welcome development for SADC to increase the number of its member states. “We want to have a wide development community, “ he said. Currently, SADC has 14 member states with the coming of Madagascar after the departure of Seychelles last year. Madagascar has become the newest member of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC). However, outgoing SADC executive secretary, Dr. Prega Ramsamy said yesterday that the organisation has rejected Rwanda’s application to become a SADC member.

Madagascar’s coming on board has been expected for decades. At some point, the island state was even courted by SADC. Now, with the opening created by the pulling out of Seychelles, another island nation, it is only natural for Madagascar to join. Prior to Seychelles’ pulling out last year, there was a moratorium on the admission of new members because the regional economic block needed time for consolidation. The period of consolidation should be maintained if SADC is to make meaningful progress in the regional integration process. It is critical that the membership be maintained at 14 - member states for now. Since Madagascar applied first, it can be admitted to fill in the gap left by Seychelles. The size of a regional organisation has a direct bearing on its overall effectiveness. The effectiveness of such large heterogeneous blocs as the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) has not been proven. SADC member states should avoid multiple memberships in the economic ...

Regional trade integration and the facilitation of movement of persons, goods and services within the region have topped the agenda of the two day Southern African Development Community (SADC) heads of state and government meeting. The SADC council of ministers has recommended that the current target of 30% female representation in the region's political and decision making structures be raised to 50%. This is in line with the African Union (AU) targets. This recommendation was made at the end of today's meeting. Gender advocacy groups remain sceptical about the latest development, and have instead petitioned heads of state and government to upgrade the 1997 SADC gender and development declaration into a legal binding protocol. At present, only South Africa and Mozambique have achieved a target for affirming women in political and decision making structures. Colleen Lowe Morna of Gender Links says all hopes are now pinned on the SADC heads of state and government to endorse the...

In addition, NASA studies food products, which will be able to satisfy personal needs of a particular consumer taking into account his/her allergies and other peculiarities of human organism. It is scientific alchemy rather than ordinary culinary techniques. Laboratory engineering rather than traditional industrial processes. Food that will be in the supermarkets and restaurants in the future will not have visual differences from that of today. However, it will be manufactured, processed and cooked in a different way. The future is near: "functional foods" - foods and drinks with added vitamins, minerals and fatty acids omega-3 - will look tastier (just for reference: the manufacturing of these products accounted for 800 million euros in Europe in 2004). However, the main surprises - products developed in molecular studies, genetic discoveries and space research - are still to come. Molecular gastronomy has a flavor of the future in its name. In other words, molecular gastron...

Majescor Resources Inc. (TSX VENTURE:MAJ - News) is pleased to announce that it has recently received laboratory results for the third regional and follow-up sampling campaign that was undertaken last February on its Madagascar diamond exploration projects. The stream sediment samples were processed at the Mineral Services laboratory in South Africa. A number of the new, smaller volume samples returned high counts of indicator minerals whose chemistry strongly suggests a kimberlitic source. The recovered ilmenites and garnets are often angular, and fragile surface textures are frequently observed. These characteristics confirm the proximity of the primary bedrock sources. The anomalous samples came from distinct drainage basins. This, combined with the fact that the mineral assemblages and chemistry are often quite different between adjacent drainage basins, suggests that multiple kimberlitic sources are involved. These new results build on those obtained from the previous campaigns an...

One of the world's biggest mining companies has been given permission to open up an enormous mine on the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar which will involve digging up some of the world's most unique forest. The decision has outraged campaigners at Friends of the Earth, who had opposed the plans from the outset. It is all the more poignant because one of their leading directors, Andrew Lees, died 10 years ago in the same forest while investigating the controversial plans for a mine. Madagascar is unique for its wildlife _- of its estimated 200 000 plant and animal species, three-quarters exist nowhere else in the world. Its beauty and coastline are also beginning to make it a popular tourism destination and its popularity has been further boosted by the film Madagascar, the animated movie which features animals escaping from a New York zoo and ending up on the island. But the company, mining giant Rio Tinto, which has the backing of the World Bank for the plan, is adamant that...

Madagascar deposited last week the instrument of accession to the Protocol to the Treaty establishing the African Economic Community relating to the Pan-African Parliament. The Vice-President of the National Assembly of Madagascar, Mr. Razoarimihaja Solofonantenaina, accompanied by the country’s Permanent Representative to the African Union, Mr. Razafimahefa-Rakotobe Jacky, handed over the instrument of accession to the Deputy Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union, Mr. Patrick Mazimhaka. The Madagascar Special Envoy on the occasion also submitted the list of his country’s Parliamentarians to the Pan-African Parliament. Receiving the instrument of accession and the list of the country’s Parliamentarians on behalf to the Chairperson of the AU Commission, Mr. Mazimhaka welcomed the action taken by the Republic of Madagascar, saying the launch of the Pan-African Parliament next month will mark a historic dawn for Africa. Also, the Permanent Representative of the Libyan Arab J...

Madagascar is hoping that Rio Tinto's decision to proceed with its southern titanium dioxide mine will develop the cash-starved island and become a model for environmentally sensitive mining. The world's second largest diversified miner on Wednesday said it had approved a $775 million titanium dioxide project comprising a new mineral sands operation in southern Madagascar and facilities upgrade in Canada. "The whole thing will take about three years to build. We expect the first shipment of the product to be in the third quarter of 2008," Rio Tinto business development vice president, Gary O'Brien, told Reuters on a trip to Madagascar. The project is expected to have an initial capacity of 750,000 tonnes a year of ilmenite, the white pigment derived from titanium which is used to colour paint, paper, plastics and toothpaste. For Madagascar's government, keen to find sources of investment on the island of 17 million, three quarters of whom live on less than a ...

Friends of the Earth said it was extremely disappointed by Rio Tinto's decision, announced today (Wednesday), to go ahead with an titanium dioxide mine on the island of Madagascar. Campaigners objected to the mine which will damage the unique biodiversity of the island and do little to benefit local people. Today's announcement gave approval for development of the mine near Fort Dauphin on the south-east coast of Madagascar, with production expected to start in 2008. The project, managed by a Rio Tinto subsidiary QIT Madagascar Minerals (QMM), would involve removing coastal forest to extract titanium dioxide, a mineral used to produce white pigment for paints, plastics and paper. The decision comes 10 years after Friends of the Earth's then Campaigns Director, Andrew Lees, died while investigating proposals for the controversial mine. Andrew was found in the forest having collapsed and died from heat stroke. Madagascar has a unique and rich variety of flora and fauna - of i...

Rio Tinto Group, the world's third- largest mining company, said first-half profit climbed 34 percent to a record as output and prices for iron ore and metals rose. The shares jumped to all-time highs in London and Sydney. Net income increased to $2.2 billion, or $1.573 a share, in the six months ended June 30, from $1.6 billion, or $1.167 a share, a year earlier, London-based Rio said in a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange. Five analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had a median profit estimate of $1.99 billion. Rio, led by Chief Executive Leigh Clifford, 57, is spending more than $1 billion expanding its iron ore operations to tap surging demand from China, the world's fastest-growing major economy. Prices for iron ore, used in steelmaking, and copper surged to record highs in the second half. Higher Sales Sales rose 44 percent to $8.7 billion, Rio said. The company will pay a dividend of 38.5 cents a share, compared with 32 cents a year ago. The company's Hope Downs ir...