Chavez urged businesses to get funding to accelerate rail plan


Caracas, 23 May. ABN .- The President of the Republic, Hugo Chávez Frías, urged to speed up the planning of the railway section between The Crossroads-Cua, Miranda state, and the rest of the works of the National Rail Plan, for which emphasized the need for employers, both public sector and private, to help find financing.

The National Rail Plan should be ready by 2030, with an area of more than 13 000 655 miles of track.

'For this kind of major public works, and long-term, the entire burden of investment can not fall on the national budget, because in this case it is financing and long-term work, which requires permanent financing, as well 'said the Head of State.

This was said on Sunday during the transmission of Alo Presidente, number 358, held in the county of San Diego, Carabobo state.

This time, the program is devoted to public works and conclude the 11th anniversary of Hello, President.

The estimated total investment for the National Rail Plan is over 150 billion dollars.

The president started the program Tiuna driving a vehicle, which traveled over the embankment of the new railway line from Puerto Cabello, Carabobo State, and come to the crossroads, to connect with the railway arrived in Caracas , capital of the Republic.

Chavez noted that this is a stretch of 128 kilometers from Puerto Cabello to The Crossroads.

President of the Autonomous Institute of the State Railways (IAFE), Franklin Perez Colina, informed the President that work on the stretch-Cua The Crossroads start in two months.

'When we finish this line from Puerto Cabello to the crossroads, in a short time we finish the section The Crossroads-Cua, linking Caracas and Puerto Cabello at once, "he said.

He emphasized: "Given that the work of the section between Cua and The Crossroads takes four years, should have started the stretch Cua-The Crossroads."

He reiterated his call for public and private companies to get financing from other places such as Europe.

"It works in the long term and therefore long-term financing, and Venezuela is how to respond to any funding. Does not help that companies intend to not start the work if not paid at once, because, I repeat, this is long-term financing, in this case the National Rail Plan, a work 30 years, "he said.

Also reported that Chinese businessmen interested in investing in the railroad project, "and the investment front."

He reported that on Monday he will meet with the delegation of the China Development Bank, the largest in the world, with which the National Government signed an agreement for a loan of 10 billion dollars for a set of works, "and are willing to invest more in Venezuelan projects, one of the national railway, so we can not go a tortoise pace. "

Similarly, Chavez said that the estimated total investment for national rail project, over 150 billion dollars, is nearly as large as that of the Orinoco oil belt, where companies working there, the product of partnerships with the Venezuelan government, with funding coming into the country.

"A government alone can not maintain an investment of this magnitude," said the Head of State.

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