April 5th 2008, by James Suggett - Venezuelanalysis.com
Mérida, April 3, 2008 (venezuelanalysis.com)- Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez announced Thursday that the cement industry in Venezuela will be nationalized, saying that foreign companies export cement while the Venezuelan market suffers from high prices and shortages.
"Enough already," Chávez declared, assuring that foreign companies will be compensated fairly.
The nationalization would be one of several measures in the past two years aimed at improving Venezuela's ability to satisfy its construction needs, especially for housing. Government figures show a deficit of 2.7 million homes in the oil-exporting nation.
"If the rich want to build their homes, they can do so, but they must respect the rest of us," Chávez proclaimed.
Last weekend, President Chávez called for the acceleration of the government's programs to replace improvised shacks, known as "ranchos," in which most of Venezuela's poor live, into "true communes and popular communities...where the People live with the largest possible sum of happiness." Part of this plan is to build homes with PVC plastic filled with cement, a project known as "Petrocasa" because it is funded by oil profits and uses oil-derivative materials.
To strengthen Venezuela's cement industry, in June 2006 Venezuela and Iran signed $9 billion in economic accords, including the construction of the Cerro Azul Cement Factory. In 2007, cement production was a focal point of economic accords between Venezuela and Cuba as well as the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), an endogenous fair trade agreement initiated by Venezuela and Cuba to avert the free trade deals touted by the United States.
These plans float on the wake of Chávez's pledge, since his election to a second term in December 2006, to "nationalize everything that was privatized" by previous administrations, focusing on what he calls "strategic industries" such as oil, cement, and telecommunications...
Full article:
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/3326
"Enough already," Chávez declared, assuring that foreign companies will be compensated fairly.
The nationalization would be one of several measures in the past two years aimed at improving Venezuela's ability to satisfy its construction needs, especially for housing. Government figures show a deficit of 2.7 million homes in the oil-exporting nation.
"If the rich want to build their homes, they can do so, but they must respect the rest of us," Chávez proclaimed.
Last weekend, President Chávez called for the acceleration of the government's programs to replace improvised shacks, known as "ranchos," in which most of Venezuela's poor live, into "true communes and popular communities...where the People live with the largest possible sum of happiness." Part of this plan is to build homes with PVC plastic filled with cement, a project known as "Petrocasa" because it is funded by oil profits and uses oil-derivative materials.
To strengthen Venezuela's cement industry, in June 2006 Venezuela and Iran signed $9 billion in economic accords, including the construction of the Cerro Azul Cement Factory. In 2007, cement production was a focal point of economic accords between Venezuela and Cuba as well as the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), an endogenous fair trade agreement initiated by Venezuela and Cuba to avert the free trade deals touted by the United States.
These plans float on the wake of Chávez's pledge, since his election to a second term in December 2006, to "nationalize everything that was privatized" by previous administrations, focusing on what he calls "strategic industries" such as oil, cement, and telecommunications...
Full article:
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/3326
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