Bloomberg
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Security at Madagascar’s eight international airports will be managed by a private company for the first time, as the country seeks to curb smuggling of goods ranging from tortoises to gold and precious stones.
SRDI SA, based in Luxembourg, was awarded a 15-year contract, Transport Minister Rolland Ranjatoelina said in an interview on Oct. 28 in Antananarivo, the capital. The company will start helping manage security later this month, he said.
“There are so many of our country’s resources leaving illegally,” Ranjatoelina said. “Between 10 to 15 percent of our GDP” is smuggled out of the Indian Ocean island nation annually, he said.
Last month, 411 rare tortoises were returned to Madagascar after being seized at Kuala Lumpur airport in Malaysia. The animals, which included radiated, spider and angulated tortoises, were destined for China, where they sell for thousands of dollars as exotic pets, according to the International Fund for Animal Welfare.
Drugs, arms and explosives coming from Somalia, foreign currencies, gold and other stones were also being transported to Madagascar and smuggled out to Europe and other parts of Africa by plane, SRDI President Jean Marc Demoulin said in a phone interview today.
Agreement to Invest
Madagascar, with a $9 billion economy, is the world’s largest vanilla grower and one of the biggest producers of sapphires. The country also produces amethysts, emeralds, rubies and ornamental stones such as agate and quartz, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
SRDI was given the security contract after agreeing to invest $8 million in staff training and equipment over the next four years, said Douan Clarisse, managing director of Madagascar Civil Aviation. In return, the company will receive $900,000 annually from ticket taxes, he said.
“SRDI will take airport security in hand from Nov. 10, but only by working with the security forces such as police and civil servants already in place,” who will gradually be replaced by 300 SRDI employees, Clarisse said in an interview. The company will take over full responsibility for security in March, he said.
The initiative will increase long-haul flight prices by $15, while airline companies operating in Madagascar will benefit from lower insurance, Clarisse said, without providing further information.
‘Anything You Want’
Madagascar hired SRDI after the International Civil Aviation Organization asked its 190 member countries to conform to security clauses in its charter, Clarisse said. Ivato International Airport in Antananarivo is among the facilities that will be managed by the company, he said.
“At Ivato airport you can exit with large amounts of cash, tortoises, anything you want,” Clarisse said. “There is no control there.”
SRDI may expand to the Comoros Islands and is sending a delegation to Maputo, Mozambique next week to meet with the head of the country’s civil aviation, Demoulin said. It is also in talks to provide security for Djibouti airport, he said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Hannah McNeish in Antananarivo via Johannesburg atpmrichardson@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin in Johannesburg atasguazzin@bloomberg.net