MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

China/Venezuela cooperation agreements involving 20bn dollars including 5bn credit

The two leaders also agreed to a joint venture to exploit petroleum in the Orinoco basin

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, said they were committed to consolidating the strategic alliance between their two countries during a meeting in Beijing at which they signed a dozen cooperation and investment agreements worth 20 billion dollars.

Maduro and Xi hailed the good state of bilateral relations in separate statements during their meeting at the Great Hall of the People.

There is no doubt that “this visit to China will certainly further promote China-Venezuela relations to new heights,” the Chinese president said.

Maduro, meanwhile, said that he expects the two nations to continue developing the strategic association that was established by his predecessor, Hugo Chavez, with former Chinese leaders.

“Venezuela is at a special stage and advancement has to be productive and diversified. And starting with a new economic model of socialism for the 21st century,” Maduro said.

After their meeting, the two leaders participated in a ceremony to sign the assorted bilateral agreements.

Among those accords is the granting of a 5 billion dollars credit line by the Chinese Development Bank that will be used in Venezuela for housing, agriculture, transportation, industry, roadways, electricity, mining, healthcare and science and technology.

Maduro and Xi also signed a memorandum of understanding for the development of a feasibility study for exploiting the Las Cristinas gold mine.

The Venezuelan leader also agreed to form a joint venture with Chinese oil company Sinopec to exploit petroleum in the Junin 10 bloc in the Orinoco belt that will require an investment of 14 billion dollars, and it is expected that this project will result in the production of 200,000 barrels per day of crude, Maduro said in a Twitter post.

Another highpoint of Maduro’s visit was his meeting with China’s top political advisor, Yu Zhengsheng who praised the bilateral relationship between the two counties particularly the frequent high-level interactions, the mutually complementary economies and coincidence and support in international affairs.