Madagascar Development

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Total, the French oil company, on Wednesday continued its acquisition spree of oil fields, venturing into Madagascar in a deal that could eventually become the island nation’s biggest investment. Total bought 60 per cent of the Bemolanga field from Madagascar Oil, a small Houston-based company, that acquired the licence for the field in western Madagascar in 2004. Neither company disclosed the value of the deal, but analysts estimate the mining project to cost $5bn. A plant to upgrade the viscous oil trapped in the clay just below the surface would cost another $5bn-$7bn. The oil – estimated to be eventually 180,000 barrels a day – is most likely to go to China, which has been aggressively seeking to secure fresh streams of supply. Total has about 30 years experience of operations in China. Total has four years to develop the technology to extract the oil and overcome the massive soil erosion that washes away roads and makes part of Madagascar unreachable for the six months of the rain...

Madagascar Oil Ltd. is teaming up with Total SA to develop huge oil reserves in the island nation of Madagascar. Madagascar, a Houston-based private E&P company, holds the largest onshore licensed acreage on the island, which lies off the east coast of Africa. Under the terms of the deal, French supermajor Total (NYSE: TOT) gets a 60 percent interest and the operating license to the Bemolanga oil sands, believed to be one of the largest undeveloped bitumen reserves in the world, with more than 16 billion barrels of oil, according to an independent survey. “Total’s experience in other oil sands projects and large-scale integrated developments worldwide will greatly benefit the project and position it forward for potential development,” said Madagascar Chief Executive Officer Alex Archila. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The Bemolanga license is one of six that Madagascar and its subsidiaries, Madagascar Oil SA and Majunga Oil SARL, holds on the island. Houston Busine...

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has completed the second and third reviews of Madagascar's economic performance under a three-year Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) arrangement. The completion of the reviews enables Madagascar to draw an amount equivalent to SDR 15.7 million(about US$25 million), bringing the total disbursements under the PRGF to SDR 31.4 million (about US$ 49.9 million). In completing the review, the Board also granted waivers for the nonobservance of a quantitative performance criterion pertaining to the ceiling on the net domestic financing requirement of the central government, a quantitative performance criterion on the floor on tax revenue, a structural performance criterion on the implementation of the Central Bank of Madagascar recapitalization plan, and a structural performance criterion on the issuance by the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Budget of quarterly commitment ceilings to all ministries. The Board also m...

Event Details: Please join SID-Washington and the Corporate Council on Africa (CCA) for a presentation on the "Madagascar Action Plan: 2007-2012: A Bold and Exciting Vision for Rapid Development" by: Marius Ratolojanahary, Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries Perline Rahantanirina, Vice Minister of Health, Family Planning and Social Protection Andry Ralijaona, General Secretary in charge of Madagascar Action Plan Ndranto Razakamanarina, Advisor for International Mobilization at SGMAP Tovondriaka Rakotobe, General Secretary of the Ministry of Environment Eric Beantanana, Marketing Officer, Economic Development Board of Madagascar Accompanied by Ambassador Niels Marquardt, US Ambassador to Madagascar The Madagascar Action Plan (MAP) is a bold and exciting new vision for Madagascar. The MAP establishes direction, commitments and priorities for the nation from 2007-2012. It is about people – the people of Madagascar – and is changing values, habits, practices and pr...

Antananarivo - The worldwide search for new oil and gas reserves has now reached the island-state of Madagascar off of Africa's eastern coast. So far, 17 international petroleum companies are involved in a race to discover new oil fields on the world's fourth-largest island, according to media reports. The Madagascar Oil company is already pumping oil in the Tsimiroro and Bemolanga regions in the south. Meanwhile the government is considering 25 contracts for awarding production rights, six of them in offshore regions and the other 19 on the island itself. But plans are afoot to more strongly develop the tropical island's coal reserves which are estimated at 135 million tonnes. According to reports, exploitation of reserves in a 50,000-hectare area in the Betioky district south of the Atsimo Andrefana region is soon to get underway. Domestic coal would then as quickly as possible replace the environmentally-damaging charcoal, for the production of which large sections of fo...

Mr. Bio Tchané, Director of the African Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), issued the following statement in Antananarivo on August 22, 2007: "I held constructive discussions today with President Marc Ravalomanana, Minister of Finance and Budget Benjamin Radavidson, Central Bank of Madagascar Governor Frédéric Rasamoely, and other senior officials of the Government of the Republic of Madagascar. I also met with representatives from the private sector and the donor community. "We exchanged views on recent economic developments and prospects for the Malagasy economy, and discussed the ongoing cooperation between the IMF and Madagascar. I congratulated President Ravalomanana for having launched the Madagascar Action Plan (MAP). It provides a clear vision for economic development, with an emphasis on such key areas as responsible governance, infrastructure, education, health, and rural development. The Fund, together with other donors, will continue to provide s...

Paul Wolfowitz, a former United States deputy defence secretary, resigned from the bank job last week after being found to have breached ethical rules. Mr Wheeler, a former executive at the Treasury in New Zealand, was appointed the World Bank's managing director by Mr Wolfowitz. International reports have pinpointed Mr Wheeler as a strong possibility as his successor. Mr Wolfowitz stepped down after accusations of impropriety in his involvement in a high-salary promotion for his Libyan girlfriend Shaha Ali Riza in the US State Department. Mr Wolfowitz said he was resigning in the bank's "best interests". Based in Washington, the World Bank provides financial aid to developing countries. Mr Wolfowitz was appointed president in 2005 at the insistence of US President George W Bush. In resigning from the bank, he wrote to its board of directors suggesting he leave running of the bank to his two managing directors, one of them being Mr Wheeler. The other managing director...

ANTANANARIVO, May 16 -- Malagasy President Marc Ravalomanana said here that Africa`s development would depend on a strong private sector. "No country in the world has succeeded in its development without the private sector. Africa will not be an exception to this rule. Let`s act with full knowledge of this fact," he said at the opening of a roundtable discussion on African-Asian exchanges on Tuesday. "We must work to make Africa a genuine attractive economic hub. That`s a decisive element both for the new leadership in Africa and to meet the challenges of globalisation," Ravalomanana said. Citing his country as example, He said he had been implementing since 2002, "an ambitious economic programme to make Madagascar an attractive economic centre," with emphasis on a stronger private sector. The Malagasy leader said African countries should be inspired by Asia`s experience. "Africa needs a road network, railways, port and airport facilities. I have come...

May 16 - Mining giant Rio Tinto starts production of ilmenite in Madagascar next year, the first of four major mining projects on the large island. Madagascar has a broad range of other mineral reserves, including bauxite, nickel and chromite, as well as gems. Foreign companies are also looking for uranium, precious metals, gold, oil, gas and coal. Below are detailed the main advancing metal mining projects in Madagascar: * Fort Dauphin, ilmenite, QIT Madagascar Minerals (QMM) -- 80 percent Rio Tinto, 20 percent Madagascar government. The 750,000 tonnes per year project in the southeast of Madagascar is under construction and due on stream in 2008. Ore to be shipped to Quebec where it will be processed into titanium dioxide for use in quality pigments. * Ambatovy, nickel-cobalt, 45 percent Dynatec , 27.5 percent Sumitomo Corp and 27.5 percent Korea Resources Corp. Located 80 km east of the capital, Antananarivo. Laterite project with capacity to produce 60,000 tonnes per year of nickel...

Ampasimazava is a village on Madagascar's east coast where, because of poor soil quality and poor agricultural infrastructure, few options had existed for generating revenue. The principal economic activities of villagers consisted of collecting firewood and making charcoal. The average weekly revenue for a charcoal producer was less than $5. In 2006 the Madagascar Agricultural Business Investment Project, supported by Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) funding, began working with an association of Ampasimazava villagers to produce essential oil from niaouli leaves, commonly used in cosmetic and skin care products. MCA-Madagascar helped the association develop a business plan, obtain $3,000 in financing from a local microfinance institution for a distilling plant and link the association to buyers in the capital city. As a result of the villagers’ efforts and MCA-Madagascar’s assistance, the association and its members became successful almost overnight. Joseph, one member of the a...

SHANGHAI, China (AP) -- Africa's economic growth rate will rise to 6 percent this year, the highest level in two decades, the African Development Bank reported Monday. Strong demand for oil and other African resources from China and other fast-developing nations is driving growth, the bank said in a statement released in China's commercial hub of Shanghai, where it is holding its annual meeting. Rising investment, good weather for agriculture, and sound macroeconomic policies also are contributing to the economic expansion, it said. Increased growth follows an expansion of 5.5 percent in the African economy last year, up from an average of about 5 percent in the preceding years, the bank said. Growth was strong in South Africa, Algeria, Nigeria and Egypt, the continent's four largest economies, with South Africa seeing growth of 5 percent, the highest level since the end of apartheid, the bank said. Oil-rich Nigeria's economy grew 5.3 percent last year, a rate projected...

The African Development Fund (ADF) will make available UA 51 million (approximately 73 million dollars or 155 billion Ariary) to the government of Madagascar to finance its national rural drinking water and sanitation supply (DWSS) programme. The ADF Board approved the amount during its weekly meeting in Tunis today. The objective of the ten-year DWSS program (2005 – 2015) is to improve living conditions by providing sustainable drinking water and sanitation services to the population as part of efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for the sector. The program expects to increase access rates in the rural areas from 17 percent in 2005 to 26 percent in 2008 for drinking water and from 9 percent to 15 percent for sanitation during the same period. Consistent with the national plan for the water and sanitation supply in the rural areas, the government and the ADF drew up a UA 60 million short-term development programme which will be financed by the ADF resources (85%), t...

ANTANANARIVO (AFP) - Madagascar's constitutional court Friday ratified the results of a referendum on changing the country's basic law to increase presidential powers and make English an official language. It endorsed with minor changes the results that showed 75.38 percent of voters backing the changes that would also change the system of regional government from six autonomous provinces to 22 regions. The voting on April 4 was marred by bad weather and saw a turnout of 43.72 percent. Opposition members complained that the exercise was marred by fraud, but have not provided any proof.

Milton Friedman, the grandmaster of free-market economic theory in the postwar era and a prime force in the movement of nations toward less government and greater reliance on individual responsibility. His death was confirmed by Robert Fanger, a spokesman for the Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation in Indianapolis. Conservative and liberal colleagues alike viewed Mr. Friedman, a Nobel prize laureate, as one of the 20th century’s leading economic scholars, on a par with giants like John Maynard Keynes and Paul Samuelson. Flying the flag of economic conservatism, Mr. Friedman led the postwar challenge to the hallowed theories of Lord Keynes, the British economist who maintained that governments had a duty to help capitalistic economies through periods of recession and to prevent boom times from exploding into high inflation. In Professor Friedman’s view, government had the opposite obligation: to keep its hands off the economy, to let the free market do its work. He was a spiritual he...

NEW YORK - Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and Kennedy insider who helped define mainstream liberalism during the Cold War and remained an eminent public thinker into the 21st century, has died, his son said. He was 89. Schlesinger suffered a heart attack while dining out with family members Wednesday night in Manhattan, Stephen Schlesinger said. He was taken to New York Downtown Hospital, where he died. Among the most famous historians of his time, Schlesinger was widely respected as learned and readable, with a panoramic vision of American culture and politics. He received a National Book Award for "Robert Kennedy and His Times" and both a National Book Award and a Pulitzer for "A Thousand Days," his memoir/chronicle of President Kennedy's administration. He also won a Pulitzer, in 1946, for "The Age of Jackson," his landmark chronicle of Andrew Jackson's administration. With his bow ties and horn-rimmed glasses, S...

As a result a Swiss bank will refund SFr2.8 million ($2.3 million) to Tantely Andrianarivo, a move that has "disappointed and shocked" the Madagascan government, which has demanded the money back. Benoît Girardin, the Swiss chargé d'affaires in Madagascar, said on Thursday that the federal prosecutor had recently decided to end the three-and-a-half-year investigation. He added though that Andrianarivo was not absolved of the charges, but pointed out there had been a lack of irrefutable evidence. "Formal, solid, unquestionable proof for the unauthorised source of these funds could not be produced," he said. Girardin added the money was no longer blocked, but the 52-year-old former prime minister would have to incur the costs of the investigation. The chargé d'affaires said he had passed the prosecutor's decision on to the Madagascan government, which wanted to know how it could recover the money. The Madagascan finance minister announced on Wednesday the...

China will build a hybrid rice development centre in Madagascar as part of its effort to help Africa to promote agricultural production, officials said here Saturday. The project will involve 10 million yuan ( $ 1.28 million) of government fund and be completed by 2010, according to the Academy of Agricultural Sciences of Hunan Province, which is responsible for the construction and operation of the centre. This is one of 10 agricultural technology projects China has promised to build in Africa. The hybrid rice developed by famous Chinese agronomist Yuan Longping is widely grown in China, and the highest yield reached 12,000 kilograms per hectare. Chinese farmers grow some 15 million hectares of the hybrid rice a year,accounting for 51 percent of the country's total rice paddies.

Madagascar Oil Limited has closed on a 24-month Equity-Linked Development Capital Facility in the amount of $85 million with Credit Suisse, who acted as lead manager on the financing. Proceeds from the facility will be used for the company's ongoing exploration and appraisal operations in Madagascar. Jefferies International served as the company's financial advisor on the transaction. The company also announced that it will be opening a new corporate head office in Houston, Texas, where it will have access to the talent, operational and commercial expertise and favorable business climate of the world's oil and gas capital. Securing this development capital facility and opening the Houston office are important milestones for Madagascar Oil,'' said CEO Alex Archila. "The additional funding will ensure that the company can move forward and on schedule with development plans for its massive Bemolanga and Tsimiroro fields. As we move ahead with this work, Houston, w...

The Group of 33, an alliance of over 40 developing countries coordinating on a common stand in trade and economic issues, has relaxed its criteria in the classification of "special products" to be exempted from tariff cuts under the World Trade Organization (WTO) deal, the top Philippine trade negotiator said. Ambassador Manuel J. Teehankee, the Philippines’ representative to the WTO in Geneva, told The STAR that the G-33 ministers have approved in Jakarta the streamlining from 24 down to 12 the list of indicators in designating such special products or SPs. "This represented movement for the G-33 in making their selection of SPs more transparent and was accompanied by the call that all the major players should now translate their political movements to concrete and meaningful proposals on the numbers if we are to take advantage of the limited window of opportunity to conclude the Doha Round and deliver on the development mandate," he said. In classifying SPs, the G...