CARACAS, Tuesday August 26, 2008 | Update
The nationalization of foreign companies in strategic sectors
of the Venezuelan economy during the past year have spread
fears among the transnational companies operating in Venezuela
and have made the country unattractive for future foreign
investments, according to experts.
Currently the Venezuelan government controls more than 90
percent of the cement industry as well as most companies in
the electricity, oil and steel sectors and a share of the
telecommunication sector. As a result, foreign companies have
been forced to reduce or sell their interests in Venezuela,
AFP reported.
The increase of government control of economy, which is also
subject to price regulations and exchange controls that reduce
the profitability and competitiveness of foreign firms in
Venezuela, has slowed the pace of foreign investments in the
country, analysts said.
"Foreign investments should be at least 3 percent of Gross
Domestic Product (GDP), about USD 6 billion, and we do not
reach 10 percent of that figure, the Venezuelan economist
Orlando Ochoa told AFP.
04:17 PM. Western Hemisphere. "Damned empire; I curse you one thousand times; some day you will be finished off and wrecked. I curse you one thousand times, empire." This is the least that President Hugo Chávez has uttered to refer to the US government. In urging the Bolivarian Armed Forces to prepare for war, he said that a US raid on Venezuela through Colombia would trigger and spread over the region "the 100-year war."