PORT LOUIS, 13 June 2008 (IRIN) - Madagascar asked donors this week for an additional US$5 billion dollars to tackle poverty, saying the enormous Indian Ocean island's growing economy offered a unique opportunity to make a real impact.

One of Madagascar's key goals - as set out in its poverty reduction strategy, the so-called Madagascar Action Plan (MAP) - is to reduce the number of people living on less than $2 a day to 50 percent from 85 percent in 2005.

"We are working hard to increase our own resources. But, apart from that, we still need to find about Euro 3 billion or US$5 billion dollars," Malagasy President Marc Ravalomanana told a meeting of donors in the capital, Antananarivo.

"That is double the amount we receive now. Do we ask for too much? I don't believe so. We ask the countries, institutions and foundations that are not yet committed to Madagascar to join us."

The round table meeting was mainly focused on involving new donors which have so far not been present in Madagascar. China and India are among them.

The World Bank's representative in Madagascar, Robert Blake, said the country's positive growth figures and forecasts were an encouraging factor.

"It is easier to achieve the goals when your economy is growing fast than at times when it is not. And I agree that now is a really unique chance to do something. The external help is crucial," Blake told IRIN.

With an incipient mining boom underway and reforms to open up the more than US$8 billion economy, Madagascar's growth rate is expected to hit 7.3 percent this year, up from 6.3 percent last year.

Western donors have been generally supportive of Ravalomanana's poverty reduction strategies, crediting his road-building programmes and initiatives on health and education with significant reductions in poverty in rural areas.

But the benefits to ordinary Malagasy people from large-scale projects like mining are not yet clear, and the rise in world food and oil prices have taken their toll on the government's popularity.

Madagascar remains one of the world's poorest countries with a high rate of malnutrition and problems in health, education and sanitation. Meanwhile, rapid population growth and natural disasters, notably cyclones, obstruct the exit from poverty.

At least 106 people died when the Indian Ocean island was hit by cyclones Fame and Ivan earlier this year. The powerful winds, heavy rains and flooding affected over 330,000 people, of whom 190,000 lost their homes.

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