September 22, 2005
Venezuela invests $900m to produce ethanol

(Associated Press) - "Venezuela plans to invest $900 million over the next five years to plant sugar cane and build processing plants to produce ethanol, President Hugo Chávez said.

Speaking to governors and mayors, Chávez said the plan will involve cultivating about 300,000 hectares (740,000 acres) of sugar cane and building 15 plants across the country to make ethanol from it for gasoline production (...)

He said the government aims to produce all the ethanol it needs so it will no longer have to import it. The program is projected to create about 500,000 jobs in the country of 25 million people, he said.

Venezuela is the world's fifth largest oil exporter, and Chávez has sought to use the country's windfall oil profits on a range of programs intended to ease poverty and support economic reforms (...)".