http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/8858
Mérida, 26thApril 2013 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – The Venezuelan government hopes to encourage more foreign investment and a better relationship with the business community, President Nicolas Maduro stated yesterday.
Announcing the creation of a “National Savings Fund for Foreign Exchange”, Maduro said the government hopes to make currency exchange easier not only for businesses, but also “travellers, students” and Venezuelans living abroad.
In a meeting with business leaders in Zulia state, Maduro indicated that changes to current currency controls are needed not only to “overcome the parallel dollar”, but also address a backlog of currency exchange applications.
According to Maduro, there are pending applications for currency exchanges at the government rate dating back to 2011.
He also invited the private sector to work more with the government to contribute to the “development of the productive forces and the country's economy”, and announced plans to create “Special Economic Zones” in some regions. These zones would be granted special tax conditions, as well as other incentives to encourage foreign investment. Although he gave few details, Maduro indicated that they would be modeled on those that developed during China's trade liberalisation of the 1980's.
Maduro stated that more details will be announced soon, and Finance Minister Nelson Merentes will hold a series of meetings with business leaders across the country from 2 May. The meetings will focus on issues related to currency exchange, though Maduro also stated that the government will prioritise tackling inflation.
“We are in a transition process towards building a socialist economic model that merits the promotion of a special plan of a productive economic revolution, and that includes the participation of different sectors,” he said.
Maduro described the private sector as having the financial and political freedom to participate in an “economic revolution” to raise productivity and self sustainability.
“We have a strong and powerful domestic market with purchasing capacity, because we have a population with job security, good income and strong wages...Now we need a production system to respond to this,” he said.
Lifting currency exchange regulations would actually reduce inequality because they currently operate on a Cuba-type system where people with dollars, especially tourists, have a lot more purchasing power than the locals using the worthless inflating domestic currency. It would bring in more foreign investment though which is bad because it means diversified exports outside oil.
EPZs are not new, Venezeula has had them since forever. What they may do is set up more zones along the border like Santa Elena to draw consumers in from Brazil and so forth with cheap goods. The problem is that the country is falling further behind everyone else so if it is going to trade at all it'll have to do so on unfavorable terms.
Pretty minor changes so far. What would really kill Venezuelan socialism would be rule of law, regulatory transparency, and an independent judiciary. If those developed it would be hard to prevent economic growth outside the commodity sectors.
ah yes, i'd like to know what Ms March makes of this but iirc she thinks the 'zzone is a trot den and hasnt posted in a while
Edited by prohairesis ()
Socialism was never implemented in Venezuela so don't be disappointed if things change along the road. It's more like a really corrupt trot market economy which is good at reducing poverty and economic growth at the same time.
The major problems of the Venezeulan economy are not things Maduro or any one person can solve (although I bet he could do more than he's doing now). You can't just flick a switch and end corruption and expropriation. Probably the most important thing Chavez did for the country was stave off political instability and give the appearance of reform to potentially prevent some kind of insurgency from taking off.
Edited by mustang19 ()
mustang19 posted:I don't really hold any values anymore
catchphrase
ilmdge posted:
fucked up but not tru and impossible
