GSAM's other area of activity is telecommunications. Ivory Coast's foreign trade minister, Guy-Alain Gauze, told a news conference last week that a private sector project for the establishment of a terminal market in the economic capital, Abidjan, was on the way. Ivory Coast started talks with Ghana earlier this year about developing a joint cocoa marketing strategy in a bid to reduce spot sales, which are believed to have a bearisheffect on world market prices for cocoa. Sankara's trading floor project would benefit from a network of upcountry warehouses, which is being set up by the New Caistab commodities supervisory body. The total storage capacity of the warehouses, known under their French name "magasins generaux", is to be around 65,000 tonnes. "In order to be feasible, the trading room must sell 10,000 tonnes of cocoa this year," Sankara said. He added that the project aimed at trading 50,000 tonnes in the 1999/2000 season (October-September).

Ivory Coast produces 1.0-1.1 million tonnes of cocoa beans per year. The trading floor is to be run by a separate company, GSAM Traders, with capital of 50 million CFA francs ($80,000), which is to be set up before the end of the 1999/2000 season. GSAM Holding is to have a 51 per cent stake in the new company, while farmers cooperatives are to hold 15 % maritime agency Westport-CI and quality controllers Cornelder 4.0 per cent together, banks 13 per cent, and a number of privateinvestors 17 per cent. Sankara said that he was talking to Belgolaise, regional West African bank Ecobank and Ivory Coast's BIAO (Banque Internationale pour l'Afrique de l'Ouest) about participating in the venture. GSAM Traders will get commission on sales carried out by players in the trading floor.