October
7, 2004
"Sooner or later, there will be dialogue"
(El Universal) - "The Venezuelan-Spanish
Chamber of Commerce gathered investors
from both countries in order to discuss
about the economic perspectives of Venezuela
in 2005. During this event, the President
of Bank of Venezuela/Santander Group,
Michel Goguikian, declared to local and
foreign investors that the dialogue between
the Government and the private sector
'is absolutely and mutually necessary'.
After the political process of August
15th, Goguikian said, two remarks can
be made: the first one is that 'this Government
is a reality' and the second one that
'it has the support of the big majority
and this feeling is being shared by people
of the opposition as well'.
The Government 'has open
the door and many sectors are now turning
up, and sooner or later everybody is
going to get into the dialogue. I do
not have any doubt about the fact that
this dialogue is absolutely necessary
to both sides'(…)
The President of Bank
of Venezuela also insisted on the fact
that 'the private sector has to communicate
positively with the Government'.
In the auditorium of the
'Corporación Andina de Fomento'
(CAF), Goguikian emphasized that bankers
have to be proactive so the financial
sector can bet on economic growth and
improvement of living standards. In
this sense he said that among the plans
of Bank of Venezuela for next year,
are provision to support Small and Medium
Firms (PYME), in order to boost micro
credits and agricultural activity and
to endorse housing programmes designed
by official authorities.
Regarding macro-economical
figures, Goguikian said that there will
be economical growth of 4% of the GDP
in 2005 (…)
The indicators of
the bank continue to be favourable.
The bank figures show a rise of 5,3%
in the credit portfolio between July
and August 2004, which is a 90,3% increase
compared to August 2003(…)".
