Venezuela has obtained more than 300 mlndlrs in financing for industrial projects and increased its
lines of credit for import financing, finance minister Manuel
Azpurua said.
    'We can say that we are achieving the recuperation of
credit, but that cannot be done overnight,' Azpurua said in a
television interview.
    He said a credit agreement for 100 mln marks will be signed
this week with the German state bank Kreditanstalt fur
Wiederaufbau (KFW), to finance an expansion of the state
aluminum company Venalum.
    The credit will be divided into two separate agreements,
one for 85 mln marks with an interest rate of 6.13 pct, and
another for 15 mln marks, at 6.20 pct.
    Azpurua said financing has also been obtained for expansion
of Alcasa, another state aluminum company, and for projects in
the state steel and petrochemical industries.
    Yesterday, he said Venezuela obtained two new credits of
5.0 mln dlrs each for export financing, one from Credit du Nord
of France and the other from Britain's Midland Bank.
    The Venezuelan government has been criticised at home for
failing to obtain new credits, despite its insistence on
repaying foreign debt according to the terms of a rescheduling
accord reached last February.
    Azpurua recently visited Tokyo hoping to acquire new
credits for industrial expansions but clinched no agreements.
Japanese officials refused to allow a new issue of Venezuelan
bonds until the country regains its 'Triple A' credit rating.
 Reuter
