Madagascar Development

Top officials from ExxonMobil, the world's biggest oil company, opened an operation in Madagascar on Friday. Exxon is ramping up exploration on the world's fourth largest island, where it thinks its leases off the northwest coast could hold as much as 7 to 10 billion barrels of oil. The company plans to start drilling its first exploratory well later this year or in early 2007, which would be the first-ever deepwater well to be drilled off Madagascar. "Before a well is drilled, we'll have no idea of the outcome. (They are) wild cat wells," Tim Cejka, head of ExxonMobil Exploration Company, told journalists at the company's new office in Antananarivo. Cejka told Reuters the chances of finding economically recoverable reserves were in the 10 to 20 percent range but still worth the risk given the enormous potential. For Madagascar's government, keen to attract investment on the island of 17 million, three quarters of whom live on less than a dollar a day, the...

MAHITSIARONGANA, 17 January (IRIN) - President Marc Ravalomanana's government has embarked on an ambitious national effort to protect Madagascar's remaining biodiversity while simultaneously reducing poverty and promoting rural development. In September 2003 he announced his commitment to triple Madagascar's protected areas in five years at the World Parks Congress in Durban, South Africa. Christened "the Durban Vision", the plan would increase the country's protected habitats from 1.7 to 6 million hectares - or from 3 to 10 percent of the Indian Ocean nation's surface area. Despite being renowned for its globally unique biodiversity, Madagascar has seen its forests reduced to only 10 percent of their original cover. With deforestation continuing at an annual rate of 2,000 km2 - largely to meet the livelihood needs of expanding rural populations - this protection pledge may have come just in time. A three-day walk separates Mahitsiarongana village in Madag...

He just knows that the precious metal is worth enough to justify him spending eight hours a day breaking rocks and washing clay in stagnant brown puddles in Madagascar. "I really don't know what the vahaza (white people) do with gold, but I think it has something to do with money," he says, as the sun flickers off his latest discovery. "Or maybe they make jewellery?" Though largely unexplored, mining experts think the Indian Ocean island has big untapped deposits of gold, platinum, sapphires, rubies, diamonds and emeralds. Each year, thousands leave their villages to dig for gold and precious stones in a country where three quarters of the 17 million-strong population live on less than a dollar a day. An increasing number of international mineral exploration companies are also setting up operations on the world's fourth largest island. Interest has been boosted by soaring gold prices, which hit a 25-year high of $550.75 last week. There are obstacles: analys...

Note: All U.S. markets are closed Monday in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. While PPI came in more than double what was expected, Core PPI came in less than expected and tamed inflation fears. For the year, PPI rose 5.4% and Core PPI rose 1.7%. The gain in Retail Sales was attributed almost entirely to gains in autos and gas. Business Inventories were also driven by autos. Gold fell down near $545 in Asia and held mostly slightly lower in London and early New York trade, but a surge a little after 10AM EST rocketed the price above $555 to lead gold to close near its highs at a new near-25 year high. Gold last traded above $555 on January 22nd, 1981, leaving gold about 1 week away from technically accomplishing 25 year high status. Silver traded modestly lower in Asia before finding small gains in London, but it then dropped to around $8.90 in early New York trade before it surged higher with gold and ended with a nice gain to close just 10 cents from its 18 and ½ year hig...

Several new technologies that convert ocean waves into electric power have appeared at test installations off the coasts of Ireland, Scotland, the Orkney Islands and Portugal. Technology that can convert ocean wave energy into electric power is still in its early prototype stage of development and its cost per kilowatt is high. As the technology evolves and is developed further over the next several years, its capital cost and long-term maintenance cost could likely decrease. Ocean wave energy is an indirect form of solar thermal energy that heats large masses of land and large expanses of ocean at different rates, thereby causing winds to blow over several thousand square miles of ocean surface and deliver energy in the form of ocean waves to coastal regions. Throughout most of the world, ocean wave energy is diffuse. There are a few of locations where a variety of factors contribute to higher energy levels in ocean waves at select locations. These factors include strong winds blowing...

Donors have approved $125 million in aid to Madagascar to reform its ailing state energy company, burdened by rising fuel costs and huge debts, the government has said. Donors met Madagascan officials in Paris this week to discuss a plan to reform Jirama, the wholly state-owned energy and water company which has several times been rescued from bankruptcy by the World Bank. In a statement handed to local press late on Thursday, the government said donors had finally approved the plan. "Our partners, taking account of the government's efforts, have affirmed the urgency of the plan to redress Jirama in the short term and are ready to contribute funds to putting it into action," said the statement. Measures for solving Jirama's financial woes include in the short-term raising prices and catching electricity thieves, and in the long-term moving away from expensive, petrol-based generators. Jirama says about 20 percent of its total electricity production is lost to fraud. F...

Majescor Resources Inc. (TSX VENTURE:MAJ - News) Majescor wholly owned subsidiary, Tropic Diamonds Inc., is pleased to announce it has entered into an agreement with a Malagasy partner concerning the acquisition of a gold property consisting of two permits in Madagascar. The permit holder have granted to Tropic, for a small cash consideration, the right to perform exploration and assessment work on its property over the next nine (9) months. Pending positive results of this work, the mining titleholder agrees to sell and transfer to Tropic the two permits, for the sum of CAN$7,500 in cash. In the event a mine is developed, Tropic shall pay a net smelter royalty (NSR) of 1%, which may be purchased at any time for CAN$100,000. The property, located in northern Madagascar, shows a prospective geological setting for copper-gold mineralization. The Daraina zone is one of the rare regions in Madagascar with low-grade metamorphic conditions (greenschist). This series, interpreted as a calc-al...

The Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED) declared Saturday that it will sign a loan agreement with Madagascar for KD 3.6 million (USD 12 million). A press release for KFAED said the loan would contribute in financing a hydroelectric station that aims at meeting the growing demand for this kind of energy. It added that the project also aims at reducing the cost of the power energy production. This would be the fourth KAFAED loan to Madagascar, where total loans reached KD 11.4 million, in addition to a technical aid worth KD 130,000 Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)

On December 21, 2005 the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) established the list of countries that qualify for debt relief from the Fund under the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI). Debt relief delivery, which could start as soon as January 3, 2005, is now conditional on getting the consents of all the contributors to the Subsidy Account of the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) Trust, whose contributions help finance the Initiative. The MDRI will deliver debt relief from the Fund to qualifying members countries with an annual per capita income at or below US$380, and to countries above the threshold that have reached the completion point under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative. The implementation of the MDRI will reduce the external debt burden of a number of the world's poorest countries and will provide additional resources to help them reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Background The Executive Board appro...

The Indian Ocean Islands of the Comoros and Madagascar are to receive Euro 1.1 million (US $1.3 million) in relief aid from the European Union (EU). EU Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, Louis Michel, said in a statement that "millions of vulnerable people in Africa are exposed to natural disasters like droughts, floods and insect infestations as well as armed conflicts" that rarely made headlines in the western media. He added that these "silent tsunamis ... still lead to great suffering". Comoros will be allocated Euro 600,000 ($711,000) to help restore access to safe drinking water for an estimated 175,000 people. The emergency humanitarian aid will be used for the cleaning and rehabilitation of village water tanks that were polluted by ash and debris following the Karthala volcano eruption on 24 November. Madagascar will receive Euro 500,000 ($600,000) to aid about 150,000 people suffering severe malnutrition in the southern Vangaindrano district...

The European Union has announced a $195 million humanitarian aid package for 10 African nations, including Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. EU Development Commissioner Louis Michel says millions of Africans remain vulnerable to "silent tsunamis" such as droughts, floods and armed conflicts. Nearly $57 million has been earmarked to help displaced persons return to Sudan's violence-plagued Darfur region, while $45 million will be spent to improve health care for women and children in the war weary Congo. The rest of the money will fund aid efforts in Uganda, Burundi, Comoros, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Chad and Tanzania. The money will be funneled through several humanitarian aid organizations, including the United Nations and Red Cross.

The International Monetary Fund's executive board on Wednesday agreed to write off $3.3 billion owed to it by 19 of the world's poorest countries but delayed forgiving Mauritania's debt. "This is an historic moment, which will allow these countries to increase spending in priority areas to reduce poverty, promote growth," IMF Managing Director Rodrigo Rato said after the two-hour board meeting. Development activists welcomed the debt relief and said they were pleased the deal, struck by the Group of Eight rich nations in July with much fanfare, was not narrowed by the IMF board as drastically as some had feared. An internal IMF staff memo, dated Dec. 8 and obtained by Reuters this week, had recommended the board delay debt relief to six nations -- Ethiopia, Madagascar, Mauritania, Nicaragua, Rwanda and Senegal -- until macroeconomic and government accounting problems were addressed. A group of Capitol Hill lawmakers wrote to the IMF and U.S. Treasury urging full d...

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Wednesday agreed to cancel $3,3-billion owed by 19 of the world's poorest countries, after reports that it was back-tracking on the debt-relief plan sparked an outcry. The IMF, which had previously said it wanted one last "spot check" of the nations' economic policies, said its board has now approved them for relief under a global debt-cancellation plan unveiled by the Group of Eight (G8) powers. "We are on track to deliver 100% debt relief within the coming weeks to 19 of the 20 countries," IMF spokesperson Thomas Dawson told reporters after a two-hour board meeting chaired by MD Rodrigo Rato. The G8 powers in July announced their plan to cancel the debts of 18 of the world's poorest countries owed to the World Bank, the IMF and the African Development Bank. The IMF added two countries to the G8 list -- Cambodia and Tajikistan -- but dropped one, Mauritania. Dawson said the IMF hopes to qualify Mauritania in the ...

Today, President Bush determined the following 37 countries as eligible for economic and trade benefits under African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA): Angola; Benin; Botswana; Burkina Faso; Burundi; Cameroon; Cape Verde; Chad; Republic of Congo; Democratic Republic of the Congo; Djibouti; Ethiopia; Gabon; The Gambia; Ghana, Guinea; Guinea-Bissau; Kenya; Lesotho; Madagascar; Malawi; Mali; Mauritius; Mozambique; Namibia; Niger; Nigeria; Rwanda; Sao Tome and Principe; Senegal; Seychelles; Sierra Leone; South Africa; Swaziland; Tanzania; Uganda; and Zambia. This year, the President designated Burundi as an AGOA beneficiary country and removed Mauritania from the list of eligible countries. As required by the legislation, this annual determination provides benefits to those countries that are making continued progress toward a market-based economy, the rule of law, free trade, economic policies that will reduce poverty, and protection of workers' rights. By providing countries greater...

Six of the world's poorest countries face the prospect of being left out of a much-hyped Group of Eight (G8) debt forgiveness plan when the International Monetary Fund (IMF) board meets to implement the deal. In an IMF memo to board members obtained by Reuters, the global lender's staff recommended the debts of Ethiopia, Madagascar, Mauritania, Nicaragua, Rwanda and Senegal not be written off until they take steps to fix macroeconomic and government spending management problems. The memo said these six countries "will qualify for (Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative) relief when the board determines that the identified remedial actions have been taken, and that a satisfactory performance has been maintained with respect to the other qualification criteria". The IMF board is expected to make a statement on the issue after its meeting on Friday. The Group of Eight club of rich nations - the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Japan and Russia - agree...

Six of the eighteen countries promised a 'historic' debt deal could have their hopes dashed by the International Monetary Fund at its board meeting on Wednesday December 21, Oxfam has learned. In July the G8 announced total cancellation of all the eighteen countries' debts to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the African Development Fund. The IMF is now set to take up to six countries off this list and only approve countries that pass its own further, strict economic policy tests. Strong information obtained from a number of sources before the meetings show that debt relief is in jeopardy for six of the 18: Ethiopia, Madagascar, Mauritania, Nicaragua, Senegal and Rwanda. The IMF argues that, as some countries completed the initiative some years ago, a further spot-check is now required. Max Lawson, Policy Advisor at Oxfam, said that: "This means millions of dollars that these countries could spend on schools and hospitals will now be delayed unt...

Madagascar may have diamond deposits to be exploited, based on research collected by mining experts on the Indian Ocean island, Canadian mineral explorer Pan-African Mining (PAF.V: Quote) has said. "The signs collected during the investigations of the department of mines as well as by the French Bureau of Geology and Mining Research are promising" Pan-African Mining (PAM) General Manager Fafah Ramboasalama told journalists on Monday. The explorers theorise that Madagascar is the immediate neighbor of South Africa and therefore is likely to share similar geology, he said. "So there is no reason (why) Madagascar does not contain any important diamond ores like South Africa." Ramboasalama said PAM is investing $4 million in research into the existence of diamond deposits and would invest more in exploration and production if the potential of deposits warrants. Mining experts say Madagascar, the world's fourth largest island, is thought to have large under-exploited...

The Economic Commission for Africa's (ECA) "Economic Report on Africa 2005" launched here yesterday shows that Ethiopia attained a GDP growth required to achieve the Millennium Development Goal to halve poverty by 2015. The new report shows also that despite record economic growth in Africa, poverty is actually getting worse. The report entitled: "Meeting the Challenges of Unemployment and Poverty in Africa", lists Ethiopia among five other countries as having successfully achieved beyond the 7 per cent minimum GDP growth requisite in 2004. The report shows that Ethiopia registered an 11.6 per cent GDP growth in the year 2004 while most African countries failed to meet the 7 per cent or more required to achieve the Millennium Development Goal I. The other five countries listed alongside Ethiopia are Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia, Angola and Mozambique. It indicates that 12 African countries had reached their HIPC completion point by the end of 2004 and qual...

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all. Thanks for the warm welcome. It's nice to be back here at the State Department. I'm glad to be with my friend, Condi Rice, who's doing a fabulous job as our Secretary of State. (Applause.) It's also good to be here with the Board and staff of the Millennium Challenge Corporation. And I'm proud to be here to congratulate the new Chief Executive Officer, Ambassador John Danilovich. This is a vital part for our country and for my administration. And that's why I've come. The MCC is an integral part of our strategy to fight poverty and to encourage economic development. And leading this organization requires a combination of idealism and managerial skill and diplomatic savvy and economic expertise. John Danilovich has those qualities -- that's why I picked him and that's why he's going to be a great executive leading this important corporation. I'm also proud to be standing up here with Irene; and I'm glad to be ...

"At $287.50 per ton for 1.8 million tons of rice import this year, the country is spending P27 billion to P28 billion. And NFA (National Food Authority (NFA) is losing P10 billion to P11 billion in this program. Why don’t we take the solution of investing in a rice program similar to what others did?" Henry Lim Bon Liong, hybrid rice seed producer SL Agritech Corp. (SLAC), in an interview. The NFA normally buys rice at a higher cost specially when it has to support farmers’ price during heavy harvests when price is collapsing. Despite higher price purchase, it has to sell rice at a low, affordable price particularly in depressed areas in order to support government’s social program, thereby losing substantially in subsidy. If the Philippines is able to produce hybrid rice on at least 600,000 hectares, Lim said the country can be self-sufficient assuming an average of additional four metric tons (MT) per hectare is achieved which will produce an additional 2.4 million MT or 1....