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Caracas, 10 January (PL) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez insisted today on putting an end to the oil rentier model in order to ensure that the economic measures taken by the government last Friday will stimulate domestic production.
The dual exchange rate with the oil dollar of 4.30 bolivars per dollar and other measures announced last Friday are for the purpose of incentivizing domestic production, said Chávez, during the first broadcast of Aló Presidente in 2010, from the savanna in the state of Cojedes.
About every aspect of the announcement, the oligarchy is sure to make a fuss, the Venezuelan leader emphasized.
Similarly, he urged people to realize that oil has also been a curse for the country, for “we have gotten used to easy money.”
“We Venezuelans have gotten used to easy money: insert a tube, and a jet of oil gushes out, and sell it,” said Chávez, adding that “just about all the revenues of the country have come from that.”
In his opinion, “petrodollars are not the product of collective efforts,” since with technology crude oil is relatively easily extracted.
Chávez reiterated his call for “the true national producers and entrepreneurs to join the rest of the nation, to produce, and to become productive” with the goal of reducing imports.
The day before, the president pointed out: “We will have fiscal strength and more resources for social investment and the development of small and medium-sized industries.”
On the occasion of inaugurating the second phase of Line 3 of Caracas Metro this Saturday, he stated that each day a barrel of Venezuelan oil becomes worth less because it is priced in dollars.
“Each dollar that PDVSA brings to the Central Bank of Venezuela will from now on be exchanged for not 2.15 bolivars but 4.30 bolivars,” he said.
“Last year, we imported 90 million pairs of shoes because they came very cheap since one dollar was 2.15 bolivars,” the president mentioned by way of example.
“Nearly all the clothing is imported,” he said, using another example, “because we developed a bad habit during the 20th century and the model of producing only oil and importing the rest was imposed on us.”
He stressed: “This government protects the weakest, the Venezuela people, with investments and special attention to food and health, all of which will still be obtained at the exchange rate of 2.6 bolivars per dollar.”
The original article “Chávez insiste en eliminar modelo rentístico petrolero en Venezuela” was published by Prensa Latina on 10 January 2010. Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com).
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