Development through highways and transportation

On the 16th day of August, during Emile Tsizaraina’s official swearing in ceremony, President Ravalomanana took the opportunity to unveil the focal point of his development program.
In a nutshell, the program will allow the poor to prosper, without necessarily taking anything from the rich.
Strategically, this translates into opening up regions, rebuilding, and maintaining highways.
This ambitious program is in tune with the people’s aspirations.

No one knows exactly how many kilometers of highways there are currently.
Some say 35,000 km, others 50,000 km.
Nonetheless, as far as the President is concerned, the appalling fact is that only half of what exists remains; only 33% are passable all year round; another 33% is only accessible to all terrain vehicles; the remainder does not even deserve to be called highways any longer.
President Ravalomanana promised that the highway linking Soanierana Ivongo with Maroantsetra, and which gives access to Cape Masoala, in the Northern part of the province of Toamasina, will be rebuilt.

One cannot ignore the fact the producing regions, and those with high agricultural, and tourism potentials suffer from chronic isolation due to the poor condition of the highways.
A good example is the highway toward Lake Alaotra, the one which serves the Faratsiho region, the Southwestern rice producing regions, Morombe, and the entire coastal area south of Toliary, not to mention the area between the southeastern coastal region, and the eastern cliffs.

After the highways, a fluid and secure traffic flow

The president elaborated on the philosophy which will guide his development policy.
He stated, “With the endorsement of financial sponsors, such as the World Bank, we will set up all the infrastructures, most particularly the highways.
It is up to us, the Malagasy people, to make the best of the situation, to work for, enrich and, empower ourselves, for the long run.”
As he has done previously, in Mahajanga, during that province’s special delegation president’s swearing in ceremony, he also pointed out the wealth, and the treasures that exist within the country itself.
He also proclaimed, once again, that Air Madagascar will remain a nationally owned enterprise, and that, within two months, it will receive a new upgrade: new aircraft, new maintenance, and service programs.
Keenly aware of the possible disruptive impact of the politicians’ demanding business trip schedules on day to day air travels, the president admits that he is seriously thinking about acquiring government business jets.

Emile Tsizaraina’s official swearing in ceremony has been viewed by many as an economic mission.
Without forgetting to bring up the issue of good governance, his open door policy, and his respect for a state of law, he also gave a nice boost to some of the city’s services.
This involves the port of Toamasina proper which just received two modern, and high performance heavy machinery equipments, namely
two loading cranes capable of handling five times more shipping containers, and other bulky packages than their existing counterparts, according to Vony Roger, the port director.
Unlike the old ones, these two cranes are on pneumatic wheels, rather than rails, and thus, can serve all eight receiving docks.
A crane operator, who is still in training, reveals that, for now, he can handle 15 containers per hour, as opposed to 20 for other experienced operators.
Before, the schedule was 40 containers per day.
Olivier Rakotovazaha, the transportation minister, points out that acquiring these cranes has huge economic advantages, both for the freight operators, and the customers because it allows a more a fluid port traffic flow.
This is just an asset, among other incentive measures, such as the “designated industrial zone” which will soon be created in Toamasina.

In other words, President Ravalomanana does, indeed, follow up on his ideas.
He announced at Antsiranana, during Jean Pascal Jaosoa’s swearing in ceremony, that it would be possible for every household to have a car, or at least a wheeled vehicle, and that prosperity will be within everyone’s reach.

Translated by J. F. Razanamiadana