Huguette BELLO - Présidente du Conseil Régional de la Réunion.wav

Your Excellency, Mr. President of the Republic, Ladies and Gentlemen of the government, Mr. Secretary General of the Indian Ocean Commission, Your Excellencies Ambassadors, Distinguished Elected Officials, Mr. President of the Madagascar Industrial Association, Distinguished Economic Stakeholders, Ladies and Gentlemen, as you know, the Indian Ocean is much more than a body of water connecting our lands.

It is a cradle of civilization, a source of life and hope, a space of infinite wealth. It whispers the stories of our ancestors, carries our goods, and nourishes our peoples. Today, it embodies our common future.

The Indian Ocean is the smallest ocean by surface area, but undoubtedly, as history shows, the most coveted at the crossroads of multiple strategic interests. It is a great honor to be the patron of the 2024 CEO Summit. This high-level event offers a unique opportunity to align our strategies, deepen our partnerships, and explore new perspectives for international collaboration between the private sectors of neighboring countries.

I would like to respectfully greet Mr. Andri Rajolin, President of the Republic of Madagascar. Your presence demonstrates the importance you place on this event.

Your Excellency, Mr. President, you will preside over the powerful SADC, Southern African Development Community, in 2025. That same year, Madagascar will be the political capital of the region, hosting both the 45th Summit of SADC Heads of State and Government and the 5th Summit of the Indian Ocean Commission.

I greet Edgar Razafindra — forgive me if I mispronounce his name — former Malagasy minister and new Secretary General of the Indian Ocean Commission. Réunion welcomes this recognition of Madagascar, motherland to many Réunionnais. I never forget that among those who populated Réunion since the 17th century, many came from Madagascar.

Their influences in the construction of Réunionnais society persist to this day. Our cultural and historical ties, combined with our geographical proximity, remain close and unbreakable despite the vicissitudes of history. This is why the Réunion region, which I have the honor to preside over, has made Madagascar the priority of its regional co-development policy, based on values of solidarity, respect, and dignity.

This choice of the heart is also one of reason. Madagascar and Réunion are complementary: we are a small island, you are a continent-country. You have space and natural resources that we don't have, and you must meet the challenges of development for a population that today reaches nearly 30 million inhabitants, which will count 50 million by 2050, and soon 100 million. In Réunion, we can make available to you our potential for cooperation in the fields of training, technical supervision, research, and innovation.

Let us therefore leverage our complementarities and structure our partnership in a major co-development project. Madagascar is both part of Africa and part of Asia. This dual identity gives it a natural and unique place in the Indian-Oceania region.

The challenges are numerous: climate change, the central question of energy, economic globalization, demographic upheavals, sustainability of marine resources, food security, economic and social inequalities, rapid technological developments — all require a common vision to make our exchanges fruitful in service of development. This is precisely why this summit is of major importance today. I have the honor of leading here an important delegation of entrepreneurs and economic actors from Réunion.

It is reassuring for political leaders to see the private sector engaged. For it is you who, through your initiatives, the mobilization of your capital, and the risks you take, create wealth and jobs, thus driving the development of our lands. Our role, as political leaders, is to create optimal conditions for businesses to be as competitive as possible, while maintaining social balance and pushing back against inequality and poverty.

Developing and structuring Indian-Oceania is not an easy task. We must acknowledge that despite numerous efforts, multiple attempts, and strong declarations, our regional exchanges are marking time. For decades, within the Indian Ocean Commission, the share of regional trade in total exchanges has stagnated around 6% on average, while intra-European exchanges exceed 70%.

The IOC is not an exception: the share of inter-regional exchanges in Southern economic communities remains modest everywhere. Insularity, isolation, and the distance of our countries from major global exchange hubs contribute to this. The aftermath of colonization assigned us the role of suppliers of agricultural and mining raw materials for our metropolises, and outlets for their manufactured products.

These centuries of Northern hemisphere and Western domination are not just vestiges: their imprints still hinder the development of Southern countries. The Southern hemisphere, which gives so much to the Northern hemisphere that borrows so much from us, has much to do. Our exchanges, oriented North-South rather than South-South with our neighbors, reflect economies that are more competitive than complementary, producing similar goods.

Tariff and non-tariff barriers still hinder trade development. Our membership in different free trade zones, our differentiated statuses, and our bilateral trade agreements complicate the situation. We must fight to overcome these obstacles by deepening the constitution of the African Continental Free Trade Area, which aims to unite the 55 states of the continent. We must use the possibilities offered to countries like Madagascar and Paraguay by the African Growth and Opportunity Act to access the American market, while best negotiating economic partnership agreements with the European Union. I hear your concerns about European standards that hinder trade with Réunion. How can we explain that Chinese garlic and onions escape these standards, while Malagasy products are subject to them?

Due to its status as a European region located in the Indo-oceanic basin, Réunion occupies a unique place and plays a specific role in organizing these exchanges. Interregional connectivity remains insufficient: while digital continuity is satisfactory, air and maritime connections remain too irregular, expensive, and uneven.

We must think about better coordination of our airlines and create a regional shipping company. Let's not rely solely on Mersk or CMA CGM: we are Southern hemisphere countries with extraordinary resources. It's time to consult each other and pool our efforts. The recent working meeting in Madagascar is an excellent initiative for a regional shipping company.