Monday 01 September
2008, San José, Costa
Rica
ECLA Proposes
Measures Against Impact From Food Price
Hikes
Colombia Crisis Brews,
Uribe Stews
Colombia Alerts Public
Over Probable
Contamination Of River
Venezuela Rejects Visit
Of U.S. Anti-Drug Chief
Venezuela Energizes
South Bank Initiative
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Venezuela Energizes
South Bank Initiative
CARACAS - Venezuela
picked up the stick of
the South Bank project
and supported the
initiative, which could
rise strongly from a
financial project
planned together with
Ecuadorian authorities.
We don´t pretend to bury
the integration
proposal, Venezuela will
keep supporting the
program and in that
sense, we accelerate
their concretion, now
with the cooperation of
Quito, said in a press
round president Hugo
Chavez on Friday.
Our countries are oil
producers and have great
potential in several
economic areas, they
have to join up in plans
of that type for the
welfare of the peoples,
added the head of State
accompanied by the
president of Ecuador,
Rafael Correa.
Chavez stressed that
Venezuela does not
pretend to distance
itself or make Ecuador
back out of the South
Bank proposal, but it
ponders actions to
consolidate a fund or
banking entity with
common efforts to revive
bilateral cooperation.
In that line, Venezuelan
president and Correa
agreed to organize a
meeting next October
with the Ministers of
Finance so that, after
analyzing options, they
come up with a proposal
be it a bank or a
bilateral fund between
both governments.
Correa admitted that the
South Bank project is
not advancing and
although Venezuela and
Ecuador don´t plan to
abandon it, both Andean
countries could fund in
parallel a monetary
institution for common
development.
His colleague Chavez
recalled that equivalent
projects in the European
Union also started by
the joining of few
States that later
increased in time to
form a compact banking
group with wide
international influence.
The South Bank is an
entity suggested by
Venezuela and Argentinas
in order to found a
multilateral association
to counter the
Internacional Monetary
Fund, the World Bank and
other credit entities
controlled mainly by the
United States.
After months of
negotiations, a project
was approved by
Argentina, Brazil,
Venezuela, Ecuador,
Paraguay and Uruguay,
but the idea still does
not materialize in a
concrete program.
The Minister of Economic
Policy Coordination of
Ecuador, Pedro Paez,
thought it essential
that alternatives must
start to articulate
development of a new
regional monetary
architecture.
Talking with Prensa
Latina, the Ecuadorian
Minister supported that
this region, as a whole,
should put important
initiatives in motion as
the South Bank proposal
defended by Chavez.
About the Latin American
alternative to face the
international credit
crisis, Paez said it was
possible to put together
a project like the South
Bank, advanced by seven
countries of the region.
The common goal should
be to achieve
sustainable development
with social equity and
to concrete mechanisms
of cooperation between
the nations of Latin
America and the
Caribbean, he said.
Jose Ferrer, first
Vicepresident of the
Central Bank of
Venezuela, also affirmed
that the South Bank
project will allow to
set the foundations of
internal financing for
the region.
He indicated that the
program stands out as a
unique opportunity, a
new mechanism to capture
and channel resources to
destine them to
financing social and
economic development
projects in this
geographical area. |
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