Trade Leads

Outside the EPZ (Export Processing Zones) companies, whose focus is primarily on apparel production, the most promising sectors are energy, mining, and tourism. The best prospects for future U.S. sales and investments are in energy, oil exploration, telecommunications, and mining sectors.

Tourism, especially eco-tourism, has significant potential as well. There are under-exploited opportunities in consulting and engineering. Thanks to donors‟ assistance, including MCA‟s, some investors are now developing projects to encourage value-added processing of agricultural exports such as essential oils. The country has commercially significant reserves of several minerals including chromites, graphite, nickel, cobalt, mica, uranium and ilmenite. Gold and significant quantities of various precious and semi-precious stones - ruby, sapphire, and emerald - are also found in Madagascar.

The discovery of important deposits of sapphires and rubies in some parts of the country has attracted many foreign traders and investors from Thailand, Sri Lanka, Europe, and the U.S. In its efforts to control the exploitation of precious stones, the GOM has approved a new mining law under the guidance of the World Bank and has worked closely with BAMEX (Business and Market Expansion) and USAID to create a one-stop-shop for precious stones and gold. The ilmenite exploitation by QIT Madagascar Mineral (QMM), the nickel and cobalt exploitation by Sherritt International, the oil exploration by Exxon Mobil/Vanco Energy, and Madagascar Oil, if successful, would boost the economy of the country in the long term.

The international group Majescor Resources discovered in 2004 the first signs of kimberlite, a magnetic rock that is associated with diamond deposits and plans to conduct a geophysical survey on the area of discovery. The Canadian companies Kline Mining Corp and Pan African Mining Corp and the Japanese company Mitsui Matsushima are investing in the uranium exploration.

Since November 2007, the U.S. Company Mayfair Mining and Minerals, Inc. controls 16 sapphire licenses in the Ilakaka sapphire mining district. Madagascar‟s rich biodiversity and high level of endemic plants and animals is the basis for eco-tourism development and might attract foreign investors. Despite Madagascar‟s poverty, the island‟s unique natural environment, its wide variety of resources, its competitive labor force, and its location on the crossroads between Asia and Africa make it worth considering for long-term investments.