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Trade fair to promote businesses with Asia opens in Madagascar

Xinhua, March 18, 2016 Adjust font size:

A-four-day trade fair to promote businesses with Asia opened on Thursday in Madagascar's capital Antananarivo with a theme "Asia is beautiful."

Thousands businessmen from Asia, including Burma, Cambodia, China, South Korea, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, as well as from Indian Ocean countries including Madagascar, Mauritius, Reunion island (France), and Seychelles participated to the fair.

The organizers rented a 12, 000-sq meter closed hall to install 100 stands which participated at the event.

"The fair called Asia-Io was aimed at creating a B to B and B to C between businessmen and accompanying efforts provided by the private sector to put Madagascar on the way to an efficient economic development," the main organizer of the fair Dominichini Ramiaramanana said during the opening ceremony.

"Madagascar's government encourages private sector to organize such an event to promote economic development of the country," Madagascar's senate vice president Kolo Roger said at the opening ceremony on behalf of Madagascar's president Hery Rajaonarimapianina.

"Madagascar and Asia are linked historically, for example China passed in Madagascar for the Silk Road while Malagasy people have Indonesian roots," Kolo Roger added.

During the opening ceremony, the Economic Development Board of Madagascar (EDBM) and the General Association China Africa signed a cooperation agreement to install EDBM representative bureau in China.

"Our goal in this cooperation is to attract many good businessmen from China and to help them on all process to do on investment in Madagascar," the CEO of EDBM Eric Robson Andriamihaja told Xinhua at the fair.

"The bureau that Madagascar will install in China through EDBM is a government project to promote business climate in Madagascar," Eric Robson Andriamihaja explained.

The promotion of cooperation with Asia is a good idea for Madagascar because Asia is one of the most important continents that contribute to global growth of 3 to 4.5 percent.

As for China, it remains the first economic partner of Madagascar because the volume of trade between the two countries was estimated at 668 million U.S. dollars in 2015 with an increase of 10 percent compared to 2014, according to the Chinese Embassy in Madagascar. Endit