The president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, urged that every effort be made to consolidate a common economic development agenda for the countries of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of our Americas – Peoples’ Trade Treaty (Alba-TCP).
During his speech at the opening journey of the 20th Presidential Summit of the organization, which takes place in the city of Havana, Cuba, the Venezuelan president emphasized that the proposal from Venezuela is “to advance in a superior effort for the articulation of a comprehensive plan of economic, commercial, financial and monetary development of the countries of ALBA”.
“Many times I’ve heard Raúl (Castro) say: You can’t distribute what you don’t have. Well, to distribute wealth we must generate it and in order to generate it we have the mechanisms”, he stressed.
In this sense, the Venezuelan president highlighted the mechanisms that Alba-TCP has to advance in this regard, such as the Banco del Alba (Bank of Alba), the Alba Monetary Council and the Sucre monetary unit “that can be updated and give it a virtual character today with the advances that exist, a common currency”, he explained.
By way of self-criticism, the Head of State questioned that while the Latin American and Caribbean union is being proclaimed, “let us each continue economically on their own side” when “we know perfectly well that separated we are weak”.
In this sense, he highlighted the need to promote a powerful investment agenda in the areas of infrastructure, agriculture and industry aimed at development and the generation of wealth.
“Shared economic development (…) together we can go to common action, we must take a step further and it is the call that Venezuela comes to reiterate the need for us to take steps in a joint action program”, he said.
