Souk Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai, Tuesday February 13, 2024
“Your Highnesses, Dear Leaders, Heads of State and Government, Dear Participants, Ladies and Gentlemen.
I would like, first of all, to express my warm thanks to His Excellency, Mr. Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates, for the hospitality that was reserved © to my delegation and myself.
The United Arab Emirates, through Dubai, today embody a model of global economic development. The transformation of a desert into a global economic metropolis, in just a few decades, proves that with a vision and the strength of work, we can transform a dream into reality. This embodies an exemplary success, a source of universal inspiration.
Bringing together 190 countries, Dubai brings together the world today, through this World Summit of Governments, to discuss transformation and acceleration of development at the global level. And it is with pride that I am here, to represent Madagascar, my country.
This Summit has become an essential space to discuss priorities and future visions; to promote international cooperation, by exchanging best practices, with the aim of finding effective solutions to better serve Humanity.
This is why Madagascar’s participation in this Summit is essential because it gives us the opportunity to share our vision in order to achieve our common objectives. The world is changing with technological advances. It is appropriate for each country to promote its assets to harmonize sustainable development.
Regarding Madagascar, the largest island on the African continent with its 5,000 kilometers of coastline, positions itself as a bridge between Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the entire region. ©Ocean-Indian region, because you should know that today we are home to 05% of the world’s biodiversity. The country’s wealth is just waiting to be exploited to achieve the development that has been long awaited for decades.
Faced with the challenges encountered, and in view of catching up with the development delay accumulated over 60 years, Madagascar has focused on several essential sectors. With 80% of its population living in rural areas, agriculture is one of our priority sectors. Rice being the basis of the diet of the Malagasy population, despite production of nearly 4 million tonnes annually, we are still forced to import it.
The objective that we have set for ourselves is to once again become the rice basket of the Indian Ocean in the years to come. To achieve this objective, accessibility to land is an essential condition for being able to develop sustainable agriculture.
Indeed, the population encounters many land problems, and this does not encourage them to intensify production. As you know, in the beginning, even God created the heavens, the earth and men. And this is why we have a duty to promote this wealth. This is the very essence of our mission. Cultivate and exploit the land, thus feeding people. This is why we have prioritized the distribution of more than 2 million land certificates, which will allow more than 36% of Malagasy families to own their land. Because the earth is sacred, it is even our identity.
In addition to these land challenges, we are going to build fertilizer production factories and we are going to popularize affordable seeds, to make inputs accessible in order to increase production yield per hectare.
Furthermore, we will also develop agriculture and agribusiness on a large scale, by increasing the cultivable areas by 100,000 hectares, which will make it possible to achieve food self-sufficiency. I am convinced that, in the coming years, Madagascar will become the rice breadbasket of the Indian Ocean.
The energy sector is also one of the essential pillars of development. Indeed, our energy production currently comes mainly from thermal groups. The high cost of the kilowatt/hour makes energy inaccessible and slows down development because only 23% of the population has access to energy.
We are therefore going to accelerate the energy transition in Madagascar, by installing, in the coming months, 60 solar parks in 119 districts across the island. This is a big step towards green, renewable and clean energy.
The majority of African populations and 75% of Malagasy families do not have access to domestic electricity and still light with candles or kerosene. Our challenge is therefore to provide access to electricity to these families. For this, we have launched a national plan for the massive distribution of solar kits, through a program that we have called “Hazavana ho anao” or light for all or for each household which we will therefore distribute in nearly 4 million households which will save between 2 and 4 dollars per month for each household.
This would constitute nearly $960 million in savings in 5 years, thus leading to an improvement in the daily lives of each family, leading to economic growth for the country. This unprecedented program of providing lighting in every household to illuminate the entire country will obviously bring development.
In the field of health, according to the World Bank: 400 million people around the world do not have access to health services, especially the most basic ones. Particularly in West and sub-Saharan Africa, 93% of the population cannot afford medical care or live too far from a hospital to have access to treatment. .
However, the right to health is a minimum universal right for everyone. The problem of lack of hospital infrastructure has caused many people to lose their lives, even for the mildest illnesses. Hospitals are far away, roads do not allow access to health centers. Madagascar has therefore introduced considerable structural reforms over the last 5 years.
Do you know that a large country like Madagascar, since our Independence in 1960, has only 18 hospital and university centers for a population of 28 million inhabitants.
This is how, since the start of my mandate in 2019, we have built 30 hospitals following international standards in just 5 years. Close to the population, these hospitals are equipped with an operating theater and new cutting-edge technologies such as scanners. In addition, 110 basic health centers have been built across 119 districts throughout the country.
I am convinced that it is a healthy and healthy population that can make a contribution to the development of the nation.
In the field of education, as you know, in Africa as in Madagascar, several thousand children still walk for several hours to reach their school or a place of education, sometimes even under the trees and study without a roof and without basic equipment such as tables and benches.
This is why we took on the challenge of building 4,198 classrooms to educate more than 200,000 students in just 5 years. This is a record in Madagascar which will shine on the African continent. Manuals, educational books and IT tools were distributed to all these schools. School canteens have also been set up.
We have built universities and, in the next 5 years, we will focus on setting up a professional training program adapted to young people and the needs of the labor market. As on the African continent, 75% of the Malagasy population is young. This is a strength and an advantage that we must exploit to the fullest.
It is in this spirit that the general policy of the Malagasy state is aimed at young people, through training, our objective being that each citizen must be useful and an actor of disaster. development and not a burden on his family and that he does not become a burden on his community and on the country.
We are therefore going to invest massively in professional training to increase the skills of our young people and reduce the unemployment rate.
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
At the end of my speech, in this same register, it is with satisfaction that we come to realize cooperation projects with the United Arab Emirates, in the field of digitalization, through the ” Digital School” and “Coders Initiative” which will train more than a million young people in new technologies.
Given that young Malagasy people are talented and master these tools, these programs will promote access to the labor market and allow the absorption of unemployment and the unemployment rate.
With the United Arab Emirates, we have the confidence of having a partner with quality know-how and experience to support Madagascar towards rapid and sustainable development. The future comes down to preparing our future generations to face challenges with innovative technological weapons that will shape the world of tomorrow.
The hope of every generation rests in our hands, we the Leaders of today. Our duty is to support them for a better future.
Long live cooperation between world governments! May the Leaders that we are carry the transformation of today and the development of tomorrow!
May God bless our Nations.
Thank you for your kind attention »./.
Andry RAJOELINA
President of the Republic of Madagascar
Listening transcription: Jeannot RAMAMBAZAFY
