The Export Club on mission to Tananarive
The Club Export Réunion accompanied a delegation of Reunionese business leaders from May 17 to 21 to Madagascar. After two years without being able to travel to the Big Island, the 15 entrepreneurs of the delegation had the opportunity to meet their previously identified Malagasy counterparts, in B to B meetings.
The diplomatic meetings organized on May 20 constituted the culmination of this mission. They made it possible to exchange with public actors, notably the Malagasy Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Secretary of State in charge of new towns and housing and representatives of the Ministry of Industry, trade and consumption. Representatives of the African Development Bank (BAD) and the Economic Development Board of Madagascar also participated in these meetings.
Money laundering : worsening in 2021
The Saminfin annual report, Malagasy financial intelligence service in charge of combating illicit financing presented a 2021 annual report estimating the amounts laundered in 2021 at more than 1,800 billion ariary, three times more than the previous year. According to Saminfin, this “dirty money” comes from the illegal export of gold, embezzlement of public funds, of theft of mining resources… The country has nevertheless adopted laws and bodies aimed at combating this financial trafficking, but their non-application and their dysfunctions “contribute to favoring this laxity and the multiplication of fraud and tax offenses”, according to Hony Radert, the president of the Collective of Citizens and Citizen Organizations (CCOC), quoted by Radio France Internationale.
Air Madagascar must find 69 million dollars
Air Madagascar would need $69 million to finance its relaunch, according to an estimate from the Malagasy authorities sent to the International Monetary Fund at the end of April. The funder now ensures that it is consulted before any decision on public financing of the company, which has cost the State fortunes in the past. “The injection of public money into Air Madagascar will be strictly limited until a viable business plan is finalized and approved”, declared Frédéric Lambert, IMF mission chief, suggesting that the restructuring plan presented at the end of last year and providing in particular for the merger of Air Madagascar and its subsidiary Tsaradia into a new company called Madagascar Airlines, was not yet effective.
Fort-Dauphin : tensions between Rio Tinto and the population
A compromise was finally found on May 22 in Fort-Dauphin between QMM, the subsidiary of Rio Tinto which operates the ilmenite mine and the local population considering themselves victims of nuisance. Following abnormal fish mortality, fishing activities had to be banned a few weeks earlier and blockades had been erected to prevent access to mining installations, whose activities had been interrupted.
7,6 million latrines to be built by 2030
Unicef and the Malagasy Ministry of Water, sanitation and hygiene estimate at 7,6 million latrines to be built in the country by 2030. Of this total, six million must be in rural areas and 1,6 million in urban areas.
The water supply and sanitation monitoring program carried out by UN agencies shows that 24% of the urban population and 54% of the rural population of Madagascar practice open defecation., source of pollution and disease.
