Economist Hugues Rajaonson advocates for a sustained industrialization effort. The weakness of industry, its geographic concentration, and the gradual disappearance of certain regional industrial hubs call for a deliberate sectoral public policy. For economist Hugues Rajaonson, Madagascar must undertake a sustained industrialization effort if it wants to return to sustainable growth. Madagascar's economic development inevitably depends on sustained industrialization. This is the conviction defended by Hugues F. Rajaonson, for whom the weakness of the industrial sector is today the missing link that would allow the national economy to progress toward long-awaited prosperity.

Solid industrial base
The economist recalls that no country has achieved development without building a solid industrial base. Madagascar remains far from an industrializing economy. Manufacturing industry is too marginal. It represents only 9% of GDP, clearly showing that local transformation remains limited and still occupies an insufficient place given the needs for job creation, production, and added value. Hugues Rajaonson summarizes the situation in three observations: the weakness of manufacturing industry, the concentration of activities around the Antananarivo-Antsirabe corridor, with an extension toward Toamasina, and the disappearance of several regional industrial hubs.

Toliara, symbol of deindustrialization
The Southwest is, in his view, one of the most striking illustrations of this decline. The case of Toliara allows us to concretely measure the consequences of the gradual disappearance of industrial hubs outside the country's main economic corridors. Atsimo-Andrefana once had a genuine industrial base, with an oil mill, textile units, agricultural tool manufacturing activities, and sectors linked to cotton cultivation and processing.

From the 1990s onward, the industrial units of SUMATEX, SNHU, TOLY, and HASYMA disappeared one after another, so that formal industry practically no longer exists in the region. This situation raises several questions. The economist questions, among other things, national and local political responsibilities in the disappearance of these companies, but also the weak mobilization of the many managers, engineers, and lawyers trained in Madagascar or abroad at the time, who could have supported their development. Not to mention the importance of exploring all opportunities for these regions to give new momentum to the economy.

Industrialization through the private sector
Hugues Rajaonson also returns to the nationalizations of the 1970s and 1980s. He recalls that the management of these state companies was entrusted to senior civil servants and questions their preparation and the support provided to them to run commercially-oriented enterprises. For him, Madagascar must now make private sector-led industrialization a genuine political choice. He wishes for the development of a detailed roadmap to achieve the official objective of raising industry's share to 30% of GDP by 2040. The economist also calls for creating a more favorable environment for investment, including foreign investment, which he considers too weak, protecting Malagasy entrepreneurs, and encouraging them to invest more in their own country.

"Industrialization is a political choice. It is up to us to get to work and equip our country with an ambitious and deliberate industrial public policy," concludes Hugues F. Rajaonson.