Venezuela Advances Project for “Socialist” Factories

June 9, 2008 (venezuelanalysis.com)– Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced on Sunday that his government continues to advance in its project to build a socialist economy. During his weekly talk show Aló Presidente, the Venezuelan president gave the details on several of the more than 200 socialist factories being installed around the country and assured that these new industries are a fundamental part of the country’s economic recovery.

“This is an example of how we are reactivating the economy,” said President Chavez. “There are hundreds of factories and industries that we are building, little by little, step by step, we are moving from capitalism to socialism.”

The Venezuelan president began the show by touring a rock-crushing plant in the western state of Falcon which will produce aggregate materials used in construction. Chavez explained how this plant, which had been abandoned since the year 2000, would have the capacity to supply a good part of the local demand for the building materials needed in the construction of houses, roads, and public works, and could also look to export the materials to neighboring countries.

“Many times the construction work is stopped because there aren’t enough building materials like cement, rocks, or sand,” he said.

Chavez also spoke with workers from a new bicycle plant in the central state of Cojedes where a joint venture between Venezuela and Iran will produce 100,000 bicycles a year. The National Bicycle Factory was created with technology from the Iranian company Aassak and is jointly owned by Aassak (49 percent) and the Venezuelan company Corpivensa (51 percent).

Chavez explained that the new bicycles will be called “Atomic” bicycles, mocking the United States government’s accusations that Venezuela and Iran are using the bicycle factory as a front to enrich uranium.

The president also announced the creation of Venezuela’s first factory to produce cellular telephones, which will have a capacity to produce a million cellular phones per year.

Chavez spoke by satellite to workers at the factory and informed viewers that the project will begin operations by the end of the year. The project is a joint venture with China and will use Chinese technology to produce enough cell phones to supply 6 percent of the Venezuelan market.

“We are promoting the development of the national economy in sectors such as telecommunications and light industry with factories for Chinese cell phones and bicycles with Iranian technology,” he said.

President Chavez first announced his plan to build socialist factories in 2007, and the government plans to install 209 of these factories by the end of 2009.  The factories are being created with the help of investments from countries such as China, Iran, and Argentina to produce goods in strategic sectors such as foods, chemicals, machinery, equipment, plastics, glass, and transportation, and are to be placed under the management of communal councils.

During his show on Sunday, the Venezuelan president indicated that Venezuela is in the process of installing factories to produce motorcycles, diesel motors, airplanes, buses, dump trucks, elevators, kitchen utensils, and various food industries.

“They had condemned us to being only a producer of oil. It was colonialism,” he said. “Now we have freed ourselves and thanks only to this liberation are we seeing this advance.”

Chavez thanked the various partner countries for their participation in the industrial projects, and spoke with the Chinese, Iranian, and Argentine ambassadors who were guests on the show. Special thanks were given to Argentina for providing investment and technology for more than 100 of the planned factories.

Argentine ambassador to Venezuela Alicia Castro assured that they were calling on a large number of Argentine industries to participate in the deals.

“We want to bring our best production to Venezuela with the only condition that they are willing to transfer knowledge to this socialist revolution,” she said.

Chavez commented that the industrial projects are designed to supply Venezuela’s internal market first, and later can also be used to export to other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. President Chavez said he would make more important announcement about his government’s future economic plans on Wednesday.