Last year South Africa beat Madagascar 1-0 in Durban in a World Cup warm-up and then narrowly edged the islanders in a penalty shootout in a Cosafa Castle Cup quarter-final tie played at Port Elizabeth.

BBC: SA to take on Madagascar

By far the most ambitious of all the land deals in the past year was Daewoo Logistics' contract with the government of Madagascar to lease 1.3m hectares, almost half the country's arable land, to produce corn for Daewoo's home country, South Korea.

ECONOMIST: No matter how bad things get, people still need to eat

Meanwhile Madagascar themselves beat Mauritius 2-1 in the opening match of this year's Cosafa Cup.

BBC: SA to take on Madagascar

Ivory Coast begin their 2010 World Cup and Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign against Mozambique on 1 June, Botswana and Madagascar are the other two sides in Group 7.

BBC: Ivory Coast suffer Japan defeat

Group operates 9 port terminals, including 4 in the Philippines and 1 each in Brazil, Poland, Japan, Indonesia, Madagascar.

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