(English) Development and Environment: cooperation, not competition

Mae’n ddrwg gen i, mae’r cofnod hwn dim ond ar gael mewn English.

Madagascar has led calls for Southern African nations to increase their manufacturing capacity to 30 per cent of their GDP by 2030.

The island republic on Sunday (17^th August) hosted the 45^th Southern African Development Community (SADC) Summit of Heads of State and Government – the first time it has hosted the annual meeting.

Madagascar’s President Andry Rajoelina assumed the rotating SADC chairmanship from Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa, becoming the first Malagasy chair since Madagascar joined the community in 2005.

SADC is seeking solutions to challenges posed to Southern African states, including (though not limited to) tariffs imposed on their goods by the US government, and cuts to funding and assistance made by the US and other wealthy Western nations.

In Madagascar’s case, those tariffs were originally announced (in April this year) at 47 per cent. Although this has since been reduced to 15 per cent on ‘natural products’ from the republic, this includes vanilla, one of the country’s most significant cash crops.

The Community hopes that the ‘removal of barriers, faster movement of goods, and more value retained at home’ between and among its members will help mutual advancement and improve their economic performance.

At its Council of Ministers (attended by the member-states’ Foreign and Economic ministers before the Summit of Heads of State and Government) on Tuesday (12^th August), SADC executive secretary Elias Magosi said:

‘It is becoming increasingly evident that we are more likely to succeed when we depend more on our own resources than on external support over which we have absolutely no control.

‘To achieve this, we must strengthen intra-regional trade, remove trade barriers and invest in essential infrastructure.’

The SADC manufacturing target – to increase the region’s manufacturing to make up 30 percent of its GDP by 2030 – would almost triple today’s 11 percent: in Madagascar’s case the current figure is 12.8 per cent.

It is hoped this level would also be enough to enable the region’s economies to ride out market slow-downs, or at least reduce their worst impacts.

Madagascar’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Rafaravavitafika Rasata – who chairs the Council of Ministers – said:

‘By combining the maritime, economic, environmental and cultural potential of the islands with the resources and agricultural and industrial power of the continental member states, we can build the autonomous and competitive SADC we want.’

We are a Malagasy-led organisation. Our focus is on working with others in Madagascar to ensure everyone’s lives are first saved – from hunger and disease – then improved, through childcare, education, training and technical materials, and that Malagasy people can fulfil their potential, while protecting the environment we all share and the planet relies upon.

MfM knows very well that Madagascar as a nation needs to develop and maintain economic strength and independence: almost 80 per cent of the population here lives on or below the poverty line of £1.73 per day.

We also know, however, that without full and due attention to the way that strength and independence is achieved, many may lives – of animals and plants, as well as of men, women and children all over the world – can be seriously damaged or lost.

It is why our Resilient Forests and Livelihoods programme, at the heart of what we do, is so-named and why its focus is on the Malagasy wilderness and all within it, as well as upon helping people use their innovation and work to lead the lives they all deserve.

We welcome efforts to build and reinforce Malagasy resilience, and improve lives and livelihoods, but we call on all governments, including our own, to ensure we do so in a way which also protects and expands our vibrant, vital environment, of which we are part, and upon which we all rely.