Madagascar

Australian Ambassador Ian Mcconville with
Ken Alyward from SIAM at his sapphire mine site
in Southern Madagascar.

We have continued to build up some very useful links in Madagascar over the recent year. The Ambassador has made three trips, November 2005, May and most recently in July-August, and Stuart Shaw, Deputy Head of Mission, made calls in Antananarivo in April of this year to touch base with our Consular Wardens, Helen Crowley and Geoff Gorrie, as well as local Government contacts.

Whilst our key focus is on assisting companies investing in Madagascar in the mining sector (Riotinto, Madagascar Resources or Societe d’Investissement Australien a Madagascar (S.I.A.M)), there are a number of companies that are actively procuring Australian products or services including Power and Management Services which has initiated several very interesting projects in the school and housing construction sector.

The Ambassador also had a very useful call on President Ravalomanana during his April visit and was able to use this opportunity to underline strengthening ties between Australia and Madagascar.

However, our interests are much broader than just commercial. We have provided support to several school construction projects, hence our links with the education sector are growing. Madagascar is also a biodiversity hotspot, and the conservation of its natural resources is important not just for its emerging tourist industry, but in relation to global environment objectives such as sustainable fisheries practices. There is some useful Government-to-Government links at the environment level, including in the working together to preserve marine species such as the dugong and white pointer shark. The Australian Embassy has also funded some Direct Aid Projects in relation to promoting environmentally sustainable industries for local communities, such as in bee keeping and permaculture. In the past year, these programs have been facilitated through the excellent work of the Wildlife Conservation Society.

If you are aware of other Australians doing interesting things in Madagascar, we would be very keen to hear from you. We are hopeful to have a Madagascan update section incorporated into each edition of our newsletters, as well as on our Embassy website. We also strongly encourage Aussies working in Madagascar to register with us, as our consular workload in Madagascar is increasing and the more information we have on people’s whereabouts, the easier it is for us to assist and, in some cases, to call on you to assist us.

<<Previous     Contents