Upon election to the presidency, Ravalomanana sought to mitigate the negative economic impact of the eight-month political standoff with Ratsiraka, which had cost Madagascar millions of dollars in lost tourism and trade revenue as well as damage to infrastructure, including bombed bridges and buildings damaged by arson. He enacted a series of new laws, policies and reforms that sought to efface remaining traces of Ratsiraka's socialist ideology and replace it with a firmly capitalist, market-driven economic environment. In a break with tradition, the new head of state moved away from reliance on its principal trading partner, France, and cultivated relationships with partners such as Germany, the United States and South Korea as part of his strategy for Madagascar's economic development. He partnered with advisers at Harvard University to launch a rapid results initiative designed to spur rapid economic growth. In 2004 the World Bank approved his administration's Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, entitled "Madagascar Naturellement" (Madagascar Naturally), in which he enshrined the principle of environmental conservation as inseparable from sustainable economic growth. The negative economic impact of the political crisis was gradually overcome by Ravalomanana's progressive economic and political policies, which encouraged investments in education and ecotourism, facilitated foreign direct investment and cultivated trading partnerships both regionally and internationally.