Industrialists Propose Alliance with Venezuelan Government

Caracas, October, 26, 2004—In a bid to jumpstart the national economy and to create jobs, the confederation of Venezuelan industrialists, Conindustria, proposed a strategic alliance with the national government yesterday.

The president of Conindustria, Lope Mendoza, met with vice-president Jose Vicente Rangel and agreed to present a plan to reactivate the industrial sector of the country.

Mendoza said that her organization is prepared to work with those ministries most related to the industrial sector including Science and Technology, Health, PDVSA, and the Venezuelan Corporation of Guyana.

Conindustria prioritized jobs, finance, integration and competition.  Mendoza said the company is interested in looking into opportunities with Mercosur and to strengthen small and medium sized companies in Venezuela.

The organization wants to build the small and medium business sector into non-traditional exporters and include it in the endogenous development plans of the national government.

Mendoza said they hope to have results of the alliance with the government for the first semester of 2005.  She also said that the GDP of the country will grow this year between 8 and 9 per cent and that inflation will close at 20 per cent by the end of the year.

(Based on information from Últimas Noticias)