South Koreans attempted to take over half of Madagascar’s arable land?

2008.12.05

"대우로지스틱스 마다가스카르 농지개발 승인 못얻어"<FT>

        

(서울=연합뉴스) 김중배 기자 = 대우로지스틱스가 마다가스카르 서부와 동부에서 추진중인 대규모 농지개발 사업에 대한 승인이 이뤄지지 않은 상태라고 파이낸셜타임스(FT) 아시아판이 서울발로 5일 보도했다.

 

한국 기업의 아프리카 농지사업으로는 역대 최대 규모인 이 사업에 대해 FT는 지난달 "탐욕스런(rapacious)" 사업이라고 원색적으로 비난하는 기사를 게재하는 등 부정적 논조를 보인 바 있다.

 

대우로지스틱스는 지난달 17일 마다가스카르에서 총 130만ha 규모의 농지를 확보, 옥수수 및 팜오일 재배사업을 추진중이라고 밝혔다.

 

이에 따르면 대우로지스틱스는 지난 7월 현지 대통령 직속 경제개발위원회와 사업 추진에 서명했으며 중앙정부의 승인을 위해 최종 협상을 진행중이었다.

 

FT에 따르면 마다가스카르 토지개혁부는 여전히 지역정부와 중앙정부 차원의 계약이 체결된 상태가 아니며 사업에 대한 환경조사 또한 필요하다는 입장이다.

 

FT는 이 사업의 비판론자들은 섬주민 스스로의 개발이 마다가스카르 복지 증진에 더 유익하며 대우의 개발에 따른 부수 효과는 크지 않을 것이란 의견을 갖고 있다고 전했다.

 

60만명의 마다가스카르 인들이 유엔의 세계식량계획(WFP)에 의존하는 상황 속에서 식량 수출에 주안점을 둔 대우의 계획이 도움이 되지 않으며 생태계에도 위협이 될 것이란 논리다.

 

FT는 자원이 많지 않은 한국의 기업들이 이를 확보하기 위한 국제적 노력을 치열하게 전개하고 있는 상황이라고 전하면서, 한국 정부는 2015년까지 인도주의 차원의 해외원조를 33억달러까지 끌어올리려는 목표를 갖고 있다고 덧붙였다. (끝)

             

 

© DaumUS, Canada should merge into one country

 

27 10월, 13:08nypost.com

No two nations in the world are as integrated, economically and socially, as the United States and Canada. We share geography, values and a gigantic border.

 

 Regardless of this close friendship, our two countries are on a slow-motion collision course — with each other and with the rest of the world.

 

 In 1987, the two countries signed the Free Trade Agreement (Mexico joined in 1994) but the US-Canada border has become more clogged than ever, hurting trade and tourism. There are heavy regulations, security controls and border police, the result of terrorist threats and extensive drug smuggling from Canada that has forced US officials to deploy drones and set up listening posts.

 

 Border problems are also due to neglect. Talks to create joint infrastructure have dragged on for years. An initiative announced in 2011 aimed at creating a two-country security perimeter, by blending police, immigration, customs and anti-terrorist efforts, has still not delivered results.

 

 While both countries wrestle with internal political challenges, meanwhile, the economies of the larger world change and flourish. The International Monetary Fund forecasts that by 2018, China’s economy will be bigger than that of the United States and Asian economies will be bigger than the US, Canada, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Russia combined.

 

 Rather than continuing on this road to mutual decline, the United States and Canada should chart a new course — by joining forces.

 

 The United States and Canada could merge into one country, or follow a European Union model that eliminates the border without merging the two governments.

 

 At the very least, the nations should discuss joint ventures to develop Canada’s staggering, and untapped, resources in the north, an area three times bigger than Alaska.

 

 If combined, the US and Canada would have an economy larger than the European Union. The two would be an economic superpower, bigger than South America in size, with more energy, metals and minerals, water, arable land and technology than any other nation, all protected by America’s military.

 

 Citizens of the merged countries would have more options in terms of jobs, business opportunities, climates, studies and lifestyles.

 

 Of course, a merger, as the Europeans discovered, can be difficult. The US and Canada have unique cultures, governments, health care, taxes, gun laws and legal systems. But we have far more similarities than differences.

 

 Good mergers, in business or diplomacy, create advantages and opportunities. But they also deliver sound defensive strategies. Emerging economies, and the Chinese version of state capitalism, compete against the US and Canada and are aggressively and effectively winning the new Economic Cold War with their arsenal of “soft” economic weapons. These include the deployment of secretive sovereign wealth funds, government-controlled corporations and diplomatic pressure to gain control of mines, oil fields, land and even occasionally politicians.

 

 China has targeted Canada’s resources and Russia has declared that all of the Arctic is Russian. China is now the largest owner of farmland in Africa and last month bought 5% of the land in Ukraine to help feed its people.

 

 South Koreans attempted to take over half of Madagascar’s arable land and were only repelled after the people and military revolted and brought in a new leader. Arab nations are buying huge tracts of farmland and gaining political influence by doing so. Water, oil and metals are becoming issues going forward in these regions too.

 

 By joining forces, such looming problems can be overcome: The US will gain national security, energy and resource independence and create millions of jobs in helping develop Canada’s north; and Canada will be able to defend and develop its huge landmass, overcoming lack of capital, workers, technology and military might.

 

 As a business writer and citizen of both countries, I believe that forming a more perfect union should top our bilateral priorities.

 

 The status quo is not an option, and by combining efforts and marshaling resources between two trusted and traditional partners, Canada and America will remain prosperous and also be able to protect our shared values.

 

 Diane Francis’ new book, “Merger of the Century: Why Canada and America Should Become one Country” (HarperCollins), is out this week.

 

 

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South Korea leases half of Madagascar’s arable land

November 19th, 2008 by Alex Evans

 

Blimey.  I’ve written here before about the growing importance of security of supply concerns in agricultural trade, and the fact that some countries – notably China – are seeking to forge long term purchase agreements with third countries, or indeed to lease or buy land outright.

 

But the news that South Korea has just struck a 99 year deal with Madagascar to lease an area half the size of Belgium to grow palm oil and no less than half of South Korea’s corn demands, is arresting nonetheless.  As Carl Atkin, one of the authors of the Bidwells report on competition for land at the start of the year, comments in the FT: “The project does not surprise me, as countries are looking to improve food security, but its size – it does surprise me.”

 

As with previous projects along the same lines, the big question is whether developing countries (and particularly their poor people) will really benefit from such projects.  After initially making very enthusiastic noises about the potential for such projects to bring vital investment to bear, the World Bank and the FAO are now sounding a notably more cautious note about who benefits from them, as Javier Blas’s excellent in-depth piece on the trend a few months back noted.

 

In the case of South Korea’s project, it looks as though benefits for the poor may be very limited indeed: although fully half of Madagascar’s arable land is to be leased, the labour is to be shipped in from South Africa.

 

Update: unbelievably, it turns out that South Korea acquired the lease

 

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