Mikama - May 22, 2017

Dans PV Magazine
The plan, which is being implemented with the support of national agency Agence de Développement de l’Electrification Rurale (ADER), aims at doubling the rate of Madagascar’s rural electrification by 2020. Currently, only 14% of the country’s population have access to electricity. In its update on the program, the ministry said that already three regions; Androy, Anosy and Atsimo Andrefana, were assigned quotas of off-grid solar through the latest call for tenders for solar and wind stand-alone projects, in which the government allocated 14.5 MW of capacity. In February, an Expression of Interest (EoI) for a 3 MW PV power plant in Nosy Be, in the region of Diana, was issued. The project is part of the government’s plan to deploy between 30 MW and 40 MW of PV capacity across the country by 2020. In December 2016, the Ministry of Energy also issued an EoI for several hydropower projects and 30 MW of hybrid solar-biomass projects. Through the tender, the government hopes to build three hybrid solar-biomass projects which would have a capacity of 5 MW, 15 MW and 10 MW, respectively, and would be located in the regions of Menabe, Diana and Atsimo Andrefana. At the end of last year, the government also announced that French developer Green Yellow had begun work on a 20 MW PV facility in Ambohipihaonana, in the region of Ambatolampy. The €25 million project will sell power to local utility Jirama under a long-term PPA. The project is expected to be completed by November 2017. Most of Madagascar’s generation capacity is currently represented by thermal power stations (406 MW) and hydropower plants (162 MW). Wind and biomass have a minimal share with both a few hundreds of kWs installed. Madagascar aims at granting access to electricity to up to 70% of households, and at covering 85% of its energy mix with renewables by 2030. Solar and wind are expected to reach both a 5% share, while hydropower will have the lion’s share with around 75%.

DansWorld Politics Review
 In 2003, China became Madagascar’s primary source of imports, and it is currently the island’s fifth-largest destination for exports. Overall, China is Madagascar’s most important commercial partner in terms of trade volume and total value of investments. (..) Chinese immigrants began arriving in Madagascar in the mid-1800s as laborers for French colonial projects, and many established themselves as traders along the eastern coast of Madagascar. Intermarriages were common, and at least 60 percent of the “old Chinese”—as they are known in Madagascar—are of mixed Sino-Malagasy heritage. With a Sino-Malagasy population of 60,000, the island is home to the second-largest community of locally born Chinese, behind South Africa. This has made the island especially attractive to the new wave of Chinese migrants and investors arriving since the 1990s. Although difficult to quantify, the number of Chinese nationals residing in Madagascar is currently estimated to be around 100,000, which is higher than the number of Chinese immigrants in most other African countries. (..) China moved forward with the largest investment deal in Madagascar to date for mining rights to an iron ore project... With a GDP per capita of $405 and 70 percent of its budget coming from donors, Madagascar is one of the poorest countries in the world. (..) Public perceptions of Chinese actors in Madagascar can also be quite negative and influenced by the belief that Chinese economic practices are not sufficiently regulated by either the Malagasy or Chinese state.

Dans Traffic (Bulletin 29)
China has been the main destination for Malagasy Dalbergia (rosewood and palisander) and Diospyros (ebony) species for over a decade. Since 2013, these species have been listed in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)... A study conducted by TRAFFIC (Ratsimbazafy et al., 2016) in Madagascar revealed that 98% of the Dalbergia and Diospyros species exported between 2010 and 2014 were landed in China. (..)  While declared imports of Malagasy timber have declined, the large-scale seizures of Malagasy timber would suggest that the trade has been driven underground following the CITES listings and export bans