Venezuela sets up 2 agencies to push economic reforms

Source:Xinhua Published: 2013-11-30 13:04:34

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced on Friday the creation of two agencies to help his government carry out new economic reforms.

In a nationwide televised address, Maduro said the National Foreign Trade Center and the Venezuelan Foreign Trade Corporation (Corpoex) will form part of a "new stage in the economic revolution" spearheaded by his administration.

The first agency is to "develop and orchestrate national policy on the management of foreign currency, exports, imports, foreign investment and investment abroad," he said.

Headed by Trade MInister Alejandro Fleming, the center aims "to put in order the management of foreign currency for national development and root out" what the president described as profiting without producing by speculating in foreign currency.

Led by Ramon Gordil, president of the Export Bank, Corpoex will mainly serve "to guarantee the country's imports and exports," Maduro added.

Maduro said the government will resume a "nationalist policy of import substitution," and compile a new registry of people and companies that require access to foreign currency.

The government has been implementing new measures to control prices and inflation, including putting a 30 percent limit on profit margins.

Posted in: Americas

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