Venezuela Proposes To
Create Oil-For-Food Fund
The Venezuelan
government proposed here
Wednesday that the Latin
American energy-rich
countries should create
an oil-for-food fund.
"It has arrived the time
for the Latin American
and Caribbean people to
discuss our right to
quality food,"
Venezuelan Foreign
Minister Nicolas Maduro
said at the Sovereignty
and Food Security Summit
in Managua.
"We will devise a
formula based on the
price of oil and the
level of production that
would allow for the
creation of a specialoil-for-food
fund, taking into
consideration the means
of each country," Maduro
said at the summit,
which involves countries
of Central America, the
Caribbean and Venezuela.
The proposal includes
the launching of
agricultural investment
with a seed capital of
100 million U.S.
dollars.
The regional leaders
agreed to work to get
private banks in the
region to direct at
least 10 percent of
their total lending to
farmers.
Venezuela also proposed
to convene a new summit
for the Latin American
oil-producing countries
to explore further the
oil-for-food formula.
Oil prices recently hit
a record high at 120
U.S. dollars a barrel,
while prices for basic
grains have also risen
across the globe on a
combination of factors
like increased food
demand in Asia and the
use of crops for
biofuels.
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