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Month: September 2017

Transatlantic first for Monaco yacht

by: Cassandra Tanti
20/09/2017

Screen Shot 2017-09-20 at 8.23.44 PMFollowing his third place in the Rolex Fastnet Race, Pierre Casiraghi has entered the IMOCA 60’ Malizia II – Yacht Club de Monaco for the 13th Transat Jacques Vabre later this year.

The demanding biennial race for double-handers leaves Le Havre on November 5, although the grandson of Princess Grace will not be on board. The race will be a first for a Monegasque boat supervised by Pierre Casiraghi and led by German sailor Boris Herrmann.

“In line with our Club’s sailing policy, as well as preparation for the Vendée Globe, it seems important to me that the Yacht Club de Monaco’s offshore flagship Malizia II is able to compete in internationally renowned events to inspire our young sailors to dream big and get them considering used vocations,” said Pierre Casiraghi, YCM Vice-President.

To complete the team, he has chosen Frenchman Thomas Ruyant, who has three Transat Jacques Vabre under his belt and the last Vendée Globe on Souffle du Nord. The Dunkirk sailor is an experienced ocean racer.

“With this young team, our ambition is to be there on the start of the most prestigious races, be it GC32 regattas or offshore races on the IMOCA 60’. Both are high performance foiling boats which epitomise modern sailing,” added the Prince, who just turned 30 on September 5.

Malizia symbolises the Grimaldi family’s attachment to the sea, a tribute to Francesco Grimaldi “The Cunning One” (La Malizia in Monegasque), the Genovese who arrived by sea in 1297 and established the Grimaldi dynasty.

The Transat Jacques Vabre involves 4,350 nautical miles ending in Salvador de Bahia in Brazil, with thirteen IMOCA 60s competing.

READ MORE: Dynamiq sponsors Casiraghi’s sailing team

Photo: M32 Series
Photo: M32 Series

Tenth anniversary of Australian relations

by: Cassandra Tanti
20/09/2017
Photo: DC
Photo: DC

The Principality of Monaco and Australia are celebrating the 10th anniversary of the opening of Diplomatic Relations between the two countries. To mark the occasion, the Embassy of Monaco in Australia is organising a “Monaco Week”, which is currently taking place in Sydney.

Various events are also planned to promote the Principality, in particular through the participation of the the Prince Albert II and Princess Charlene Foundations, the Directorate of Tourism and Conventions as well as the SBM.

In May 2007, the two countries decided to establish Diplomatic Relations. Currently, the Ambassador of Australia to Monaco, posted in Paris, since September 4, 2014, is HE Stephen Brady. Reciprocally, HE Catherine Fautrier was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Monaco to the Governor General of the Commonwealth of Australia on June 16, 2011.

Today, Monaco has two Honorary Consuls in Australia: Andrew M Cannon, appointed in 2002 and based in Melbourne, which covers Victoria (VIC), Tasmania (TAS), South Australia (SA) and Western Australia (WA), and Hadrien Bourely, appointed in 2016 and based in Sydney, which covers the states of New South Wales (NSW), Northern Territories (NT) and Queensland (Q)

About 150 Australians currently reside in the Principality of Monaco and more than 10,000 of them come to visit the Principality every year. In 2010, the Directorate of Tourism and Congress opened a Representative Office, based in Sydney, which covers Australia and New Zealand.

Two major cultural exhibitions have strengthened the ties between the two countries. In March 2012, Princess Charlene officially opened the “Princess Grace” exhibition in Bendigo (VIC), which was a huge success. In addition, from March to September 2016, the Monaco Oceanographic Museum hosted the exhibition “TABA NABA”, made up of pieces of Australian aboriginal art on the theme “Man and the Ocean”.

READ MORE: Week in review: Australia Day packs StarDeck, CREM hosts think tanks Monaco-style

Monaco Australia Association's Beverley Holt with Annette Anderson of Stars'n'Bars and Brian Holt.
Monaco Australia Association’s Beverley Holt with Annette Anderson of Stars’n’Bars and Brian Holt.

 

Monaco’s Mimran Group agrees African sale

by: Cassandra Tanti
20/09/2017
Steven J. Bresky, Seaboard President & CEO
Steven J. Bresky, Seaboard President & CEO

The Monaco-based Mimran Group has agreed a memorandum of understanding with Seaboard Corp. under which Seaboard intends to acquire the flour milling and associated businesses of Groupe Mimran in Senegal, Ivory Coast and Monaco.

The businesses would increase the flour and feed milling capacity of its businesses by about 15 percent, to more than 24,000 tonnes per day, and its grain trading volume by approximately 9 percent, to 10.5 million tonnes per year, Seaboard said.

“We are excited to further our investment in sub-Saharan Africa with this acquisition and believe the culture and operations will be a great fit with our existing structure,” said Steven Bresky, President and Chief Executive Officer of Seaboard.

“Seaboard has had commercial ties with the Mimran Group for almost 40 years, and we look forward to integrating the business into our existing trade strategy and expand our cargo and trade opportunities as a result of this transaction. We expect to continue to work closely together with the Mimran Group by leveraging our existing strengths into a better industrial and trade-based business.”

The Mimran Group is one of the leading agri-food groups in West Africa, operating sugar refining, flour milling and animal feed businesses. Its main companies in flour milling and sugar refining include Grands Moulins de Dakar, Grands Moulins d’Abidjan, and Compagnie Sucriere Senegalaise.

Jean Claude Mimran, the Group’s president, was born in 1945 and has been described as the Sugar King of Africa. The Monaco-based Mimran Group is reported to be the second-largest employer in Senegal after the government. A Swiss resident, Mimran is worth two billion Swiss francs (€1.7 billion), according to Swiss business magazine Bilanz.

“We are delighted to enter into this memorandum of understanding with Seaboard,” said David Mimran, President and Director General of Grands Moulin d’Abidjan and Grands Moulins de Dakar.

“An important consideration for us was that any new owner shares the same values and culture that we have instilled within our businesses over the years. Just like ourselves, Steve Bresky is the third generation of his family running a substantial business, and I very much look forward to assisting Mr Bresky and his team in any way we can with respect to this new chapter in the development of the business.”

The Memorandum of Understanding precedes the negotiation and execution of a definitive purchase agreement and due diligence by the buyer.

READ MORE: Out of Africa and The Power of Now

Boschendal
Boschendal

 

Carpooling helps the environment: monacovoiturage.mc or 0800 91 28 18

by: Cassandra Tanti
20/09/2017

Ageing Well Village, Giant Zumba, and Walk for Alzheimer’s on Wednesday

by: Cassandra Tanti
19/09/2017
AMPA with Joël Garault from Goût et Saveurs. Photo: Facebook AMPA
AMPA with Joël Garault from Goût et Saveurs. Photo: Facebook AMPA

The Monaco Association for Research into Alzheimer’s Disease (AMPA), presided over by Catherine Pastor, is holding four free events for all ages to raise public awareness to coincide with World Alzheimer’s Day on September 20.

AMPA has celebrated this international day every year since 2010, in close collaboration with the Government and Monaco City Hall’s Social Services Department and in partnership with the Monegasque gerontology sector.

The second “Ageing Well in Monaco Village” (Village Bien Vieillir à Monaco), with some twenty stands, will start the programme from 10:30 at Espace Léo Ferré in Fontvieille.

This unique information day offers advice on existing facilities in the Principality to promote ageing well in Monaco and prevent the loss of autonomy, as well as the opportunity to talk to representatives from the facilities and services available, and meet with Monegasque associations, which are always looking for new members and volunteers.

Free demonstrations, open to children and adults, will take place throughout the day, including Tai Chi, yoga, dance and nutritional advice. Visitors will be offered a gourmet tasting by chef Joël Garault from Goût et Saveurs (Monaco Taste and Flavours) Association.

From 11:30 am to 1 pm, the 8th Walk for Alzheimer’s takes place at Stade Louis II with a giant Zumba class organised by Sunshine Fitness.

At 5:30 pm, a discussion on “Is the world experience of an Alzheimer patient accessible to us?” will be held in the auditorium of the Monte-Carlo Technical and Hotel School (LHTM).

And finally, on Friday, September 22, from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm, a screening of the movie Still Alice starring Julianne Moore is showing at the  Princess Grace Theatre.

READ ALSO

News

Prince Albert at the UN

by: Cassandra Tanti
19/09/2017
Photo: Michel Ravassard
Photo: Michel Ravassard

Prince Albert took part in the opening of the General Debate of the 72nd session of the General Assembly of the United Nations on Tuesday, September 19.

Before delivering his speech, the Sovereign Prince submitted the Ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The Government of the Principality has made “support for persons with disabilities a priority” through its international cooperation policy, while in the Principality legal recognition “seeks to provide persons with disabilities with greater autonomy so that they may participate actively in the development of Monegasque society throughout their lives,” the Prince has said.

He also met the President of the Republic of Colombia, HE Juan Manuel Santos and the Prime Minister of the Republic of Cabo Verde, HE Ulisses Correia e Silva, in the framework of the scientific campaign of the Explorations of Monaco.

The Sovereign Prince took part in the lunch offered to the Heads of Delegation by HE Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations.

The President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, presented the preliminary draft of the Global Compact for the Environment.

Prince Albert has said he wishes to express his great interest in this document with a universal and binding application which recognises the right of future generations to sustainable development and aims to institute a follow-up mechanism composed of independent experts.

He recalled that the Bruntland Report and the Stockholm Conference of 1972 constituted the birth of environmental law, and that the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, better known as “Rio 1992”, took on the pre-existing concept of sustainable development, as well as the principles included in the French project: prevention, precaution, compensation for damage, information and participation.

Indeed, environmental law is unique in that over time it has developed through the adoption of national legislation, sectoral international conventions, case law of state or supra-national courts and documents adopted at United Nations summits.

The Sovereign Prince will therefore give the utmost attention to the future of the Pact, which aims to establish a global partnership on a new and equitable basis.

In the evening, Prince Albert was expected to attend the traditional reception hosted by the President of the host country of the United Nations, Donald and Melania Trump.

The day before, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Principality of Monaco to the US and Canada,HE Maguy Maccario, accompanied Prince Albert on his first visit to Westpoint, the US Military Academy. Prince Rainier and Princess Grace of Monaco visited the institution in 1956.

“The Sovereign received a warm and most impressive welcome,” Ms Maccario Doyle commented.

READ MORE: Prince launches Explorations of Monaco

The launching conference of the Great Explorations was held Tuesday morning at the Oceanographic Museum. Photo: Manuel Vitali/Directorate of Communication
The launching conference of the Great Explorations was held Tuesday morning at the Oceanographic Museum. Photo: Manuel Vitali/Directorate of Communication