This Wednesday the President of the Republic, Nicolás Maduro, led a conference with representatives of the country’s public and private banking institutions, in order to promote the “new post-oil economy in the context of a war economy that persists”.
During his speech at the event, held in the Ayacucho Hall of Miraflores Palace, the Head of State assured that “it is essential that the banking sector, both public and private, play a decisive role in financing the development of this new economy”
For this, he stressed that one of the fundamental tasks is to promote the democratization of credits as a forceful action to boost the Banking Engine.
The national president acknowledged that although the more than 400 unilateral coercive measures against the country’s economy persist, the national government has set out to grow, develop, meet the needs of a country and a people that works with sanctions or without sanctions:
“Not to depend on the so-called criminal sanctions, but on work, intelligence, own effort, work, technology,” Maduro said.
Productive credits:
President Maduro specified that the objective is that “credit reaches everyone who needs it to expand their productive capacity”, while he extended a message to all Venezuelans to join this dynamic.
“Attention to any Venezuelan, to all those Venezuelans who have their projects from small, family, community enterprises or who have their projects for expansion or recovery of industry, which have not been recovered, or expansion of the productive capacity of the industry, agriculture, which has that capacity for growth, to be vigilant of the measures that will have a positive impact on democratization and timely access for all the country’s productive factors”, he emphasized.
In this sense, he thanked the representatives of the banking institutions, and the Banking Association of Venezuela for participating in this meeting, aimed “at implementing early this 2022, democratization and credit.”
Boosting the banking engine:
The National Government announced a series of actions for the expansion of financing methods that favor the development of the post-oil economy.
The announcements presented this Wednesday in Miraflores by the Vice President of the Republic, Delcy Rodríguez, stem from the dialogues held with representatives of public and private banks in the context of the National Council of Economy.
The main actions announced to boost the banking sector are:
– The reduction of the legal reserve, going from 85% to 73%. This measure will be in force for a short period “which we are going to evaluate and, in relation to how it performs, there will be a wide flexibility over time,” said Rodríguez.
– She exhorted public and private banks so that 10% of the foreign currency they have in accounts can be used to grant credits in bolivars indexed at the rate of the value of the currency agreed on at the exchange tables. “That represents the equivalent of 74 million dollars in credits for productive activities,” added Vice President Rodríguez.
– The creation of the National Entrepreneurship Fund, an instance that will begin to operate with a seed capital of 46 million bolívars consigned by the Presidency of the Republic.
– This National Entrepreneurship Fund will provide financing, and “it will be constituted as a society of guarantees, it will be able to be oriented to public and private banks to expand the amount of the credit and serve as guarantor of the credits that will be given in the bank.”
– The National Entrepreneurship Fund will be directed by engineer Maryuri Bargiela.
– Simplification of the requirements for opening accounts up to 1,000 bolívars. From now on, only name, surname, address and telephone number will be needed.
– Creation and promotion of a value title. This action will allow entrepreneurs to go to the Brokerage Houses to present their project “and, through this project, duly certified by the National Superintendence of Securities, support can be given, financing for 30, 60, 90 days or one year ” she explained.
– Vice President Delcy Rodríguez stressed that these actions will favor the expansion of credit activity, and will provide financing opportunities to a sector of the population that did not have access to banking.
Private banks say “present”:
For his part, the president of the Venezuelan Banking Association, José María Nogueroles, said that these meetings with the economy team of the Venezuelan State have allowed decisions to be made for the development of the country:
“I have to thank the meetings of the economic team with the private and public sectors, that allows us to make decisions that are in the right direction for the country’s development,” he said.
For his part, the president of Bangente, Pedro Rojas, indicated that the national bank supports the plan for the rebirth of the economy to boost the banking engine in Venezuela.
He indicated that Venezuela has “resisted” the Covid19 pandemic and the sanctions imposed by the United States, while stating that despite this, new opportunities have been generated in the country.
