Light manufacturing

Young and Competitive Workforce

Over the past ten years, policies of openness and promotion of private investments adopted in Madagascar have gradually reoriented the national economy towards the secondary and tertiary sectors.

The Malagasy industrial sector benefits from a workforce which is young, very competitive, skilled, hard-working (low absenteeism) and is fast-learning.

A variety of export oriented industries

The Malagasy industrial sector is characterized by a remarkable development of Export processing Zones (EPZ) which generate direct job for 120,000 people till 2007. They operate mainly in the textile sector (64%). Other sectors of activity include: Information and Communication Technology – ICT (8%), food-processing (6%), arts and crafts (5%), Chemical product (4%) and others (13%).

The EPZ sector has witnessed remarkable growth from 12 companies in 1999 to 164 companies in 2006. It has contributed to the development of the industrial sector, as well as, to the strengthening of local capacities.

In the Sub-Saharan region Africa, Madagascar has become the second largest exporter of garment, taking advantage of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) with exports to the USA increasing by 10% from 2005 to 2006.

Moreover, as a member of the COMESA and SADC, Madagascar has preferential access to a regional market of more than 350 millions consumers.