French-speaking Madagascar has voted to make English as an official language in a bid to woo foreign investment and open up to the world.

Early results of the national referendum last Wednesday showed strong backing for the revised constitution that also seeks to boost presidential power and scrap the autonomy of six provinces.

Final results had been expected on Monday but was postponed due to the Easter holiday.

The director for Promotion of Democracy in the Interior Ministry, Randriamahenina Theodore, said he was still waiting for the results in some parts of the country where collectors had to go on foot.

In addition to English, French and Malagasy will be official languages of the Indian Ocean island country.

French is the official language in Madagascar, home to some 18 million people, while Malagasy is its national tongue.

"We have begun using English more and more," said Jean-Eric Rakotoarisoa, one of the officials who drafted the proposed new basic law.

"Madagascar has joined anglophone bodies like the SADC ( Southern African Development Community).Therefore some communication will be in English", he told the media here.

"Because we want to attract investors, it is important that the laws on investment be written in English so that anglophones get interested in our market," Rakotoarisoa added.

According to the Economic Development Board of Madagascar, the country is targeting to attain 500 million U.S. dollars of foreign direct investment annually by 2012 from the current 287 millions.

The latest available statistics in 2004 showed that Madagascar was world's 154th recipient of foreign direct investment which accounted for 4.7 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP).

To boost the use of English, Madagascar's Education Ministry recently began publishing a bi-monthly English-language newspaper that is distributed to schools.

But with only one English-language school in the country, Madagascar has a long way ahead before fluency in the language becomes widespread.

Source: Xinhua