Venezuela will begin to offer from Monday the sale of shares of state-owned companies, the president announced on Wednesday. Nicholas Maduro in an attempt to capitalize companies, hit by the crisis and lack of investment.
“Next Monday is going to start at Venezuelan stock exchanges (…) we are going to put out -for sale- between 5% and 10% of the shares of several public companies for national investment, fundamentally, or international and you will be able to become an investor,” Maduro said in a speech for the state channel VTV.
The mandatary Venezuelan assured that the measure will enter into force because the companies need “capital” for their development. “We need technology, we need new markets and we are going to move forward.”
Since last year, some NGOs such as Transparency Venezuela They reported that the government was in negotiations with private companies to hand over state companies.
“The Venezuelan government of Nicolás Maduro, in an apparent disassociation with the so-called socialism of the 21st century, began to hand over the helm of state companies to some private parties,” the NGO said in December after identifying 33 cases linked to the sector. agri-foodtourism and manufacturing.
But none of these cases were confirmed or denied by the government, which was already receiving criticism, because several of the state-owned companies were expropriated during the government of the late president. Hugo Chavez (1999-2013).
The Venezuelan government, which since Chavez’s mandate implemented controls on prices, in the foreign exchange market and nationalized companies, began to relax its measures since 2018 in the midst of the most acute point of the crisis characterized by widespread shortages, hyperinflation and service failures. public.
The economic firms pointed out that the severity of the crisis had to do with “wrong” policies of the Chávez and Maduro governments.
But now Maduro is “open to listening to new proposals, ideas and visions for Venezuela to recover.”
“I reiterate my call to all Venezuelans, let’s put pettiness aside, it’s time to work together and consolidate this first stage of growth in the real economy,” he said on Twitter minutes after finishing his speech.
rrg