The president of PDV Caribe, the Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) affiliate that supplies Venezuelan fuel to the Dominican Republic, Bernardo Alvarez was in Santo Domingo yesterday, Tuesday 4 March for a meeting with President Danilo Medina at the Presidential Palace. Speaking at a press conference after the meeting, Alvarez confirmed the Venezuelan government’s commitment to the Dominican Republic and other Petrocaribe oil alliance countries. He said the DR buys 116,000 barrels of fuel a day from Venezuela. Alvarez described Petrocaribe as a regional integration model that is unique in the world and in history.
“We announce Venezuela’s interest in creating a marketing distribution company for the whole ALBA-Petrocaribe area to sell products aside from oil”.
Alvarez said they are also interested in carrying out telecommunications projects. He went on to describe the DR as a data transmission hub in the Caribbean. He said that Venezuela has an undersea fiber-optic cable that reaches Cuba and Jamaica and the plans are to link the DR too.
“This country has exceptional conditions to be a great platform for uniting the Caribbean countries in economic projects,” said Alvarez.
As reported in El Dia, the entity hopes to develop gas and power generation projects in the country.
He said the Dominican Republic has developed a payment plan for US$150 million in products that will cover the bill for this year and part of 2015.
Also attending the meeting was Jose Ramon Suriel, who was described as the Petrocaribe debt exchange coordinator said: “Petrocaribe continues and will expand even further and I believe in the future it will serve not only for the integration of the Dominican Republic with Venezuela, but for all the countries in the area.”
Alvarez said that the DR will be able to compensate US$120 million of the debt this year and another US$30 million in 2015, as reported in Diario Libre. Speaking at the Presidential Palace, Alvarez said that the Ministry of Agriculture is proposing to sell poultry to Venezuela. He said that Venezuela would also consider construction materials, such as cement. The idea was to receive payment in goods and services as a way of moving the economies of the region, said Alvarez.
Petrocaribe agreement allows the DR to purchase oil under preferential conditions with interest payments of 1 and 2% a year, and with a 20-23 year grace period. The DR has accumulated a debt of US$3.62 billion, which is 25.3% of the foreign debt of the non-financial public sector, as reported in Diario Libre. This makes Venezuela the country’s largest creditor. When the agreement was signed in 2005, the DR owed Venezuela US$194.5 million. As reported in Diario Libre, with the average fuel price at US$101 per barrel, the government expects to finance US$600 million in fuel imports with Venezuela.
http://www.diariolibre.com/economia/2014/03/05/i510691_venezuela-maduro-principal-acreedor-repblica-dominicana.html
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