Economically and in terms of development, the year 2009 will remain a parenthesis, a vacuum in the long history of Madagascar and its crisis. And in this case, doing nothing means regressing. As foreigners, we are not in a position to make a judgment about the political situation of the country, all we can do is observe, and sometimes suffer from this. Of course, the political crisis of Madagascar caused difficulties on international position and thus a big disruption in the development aids, combined with the global financial crisis which did not touch Madagascar initially, whose economy was not a virtual one, not like those of the countries affected by this global crisis. The political crisis has created a new socio-economic deal which destabilized many companies, especially those operating on the domestic market and those with a financial structure not yet well established.

Our group, like others, had to face a significant decline of its activities based on domestic consumption. But sometimes, every cloud has a silver lining. Learning from this difficulty, we had to react by diversifying our activities, turning them to the production of goods and services for export, where we could play on “Madagascar value for money” and meet a market sensitive to these arguments in a context of global crisis where there is no small savings. We also diversified our sites, reinforcing the regional basis of the group. Finally, we have seized business and development opportunities in sectors left unexploited because of the context. Definitively, the stagnation of the growth and the domestic consumption gave the group the opportunity to question and to reposition itself stronger and better placed from this crisis, and there will inevitably be an end.

2010 will be expectedly a year of transition, in every sense of the word. It is unrealistic to think that the end of the political crisis will lead to an instant recovery of the economic activity as it was at the end of 2008. The production mechanism will have to restart, the companies will need to rebuild their financial structure and to regain their customers’ trust, and the households will have to heal their wounds before they can enjoy again some available purchasing power. The reinforcement of our positions and our activities will then overcome during 2010.  Our group has created employment in 2009 and maintained, even increased, the level of remuneration. 2010 will allow us to confirm and stabilize, and no structural downsizing has been scheduled until now. While being on the look-out, as it has always been the case, for markets and opportunities, the group’s general policy is turned more to stabilization and consolidation than to development.

In our mind, the recovery should take shape in the middle or late 2011. It means that we have to prepare ourselves for this eventuality by preserving the experience gained from the previous years to be among the leading group who will take part actively in the country’s recovery. This will only be possible with the participation of all the economical actors, and we put companies in the front row of these. To conclude, at the end of this year, I would like to thank all our employees, who showed once again cohesion and solidarity. They remain in the centre of our preoccupations and our hopes. We wish them, all our partners and our readers, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2010.

Lucien LLINARES
Managing Director - Assist Développement
December 2009