Chávez's government made an initial payment of 90 million dollars already to a Belorussian company for it to build 5000 houses in Venezuela. Why would a country decide to pay another country for building normal houses if the first country has enough engineers, workers and companies? The answer is simple: in Venezuela the vast majority of construction companies that are associated with the government are highly inefficient. Chávez's regime does not want to pay companies that are in the hands of the opposition, in the same way it prefers not to pay Venezuelan private companies for producing more milk but prefers to pay subsidies to EU and New Zealand and Belorussian farmers (who are subsidized by their own governments).
As we know, since Tascón published the list of all Venezuelans who signed for the referendum against Chávez, we have a political and economic apartheid in our country. Someone from the board of directors of a company signed against Chávez? No work from the government (which is the main provider of work in Venezuela by far).
In the Belorussian newsportal Tut.by, here, there is some further information about the deal. The Venezuelan government is going to spend in total 300 million dollars for those houses.
We might wonder: are Belorussian construction companies so special that they are exporting everywhere and Venezuela just decided to go for an obvious offer? The same article gives us a hint: in the first quarter of this year, the whole Belorussian field of construction had exported products for 23.5 million dollars. The same article says Belarus had established three state engineering companies. One of them is for logistics and transport, one for construction in the Leningrad region and one, Belzarubezhstroy («Белзарубежстрой»), basically for building stuff in Venezuela (Bel is for Belarus, zarube for zarubezhom, abroad, stroy for construction, but they could have called it "Belvestroy" or Belchavezstroy for all I care).
As usual since Chávez took over: no open biddings, no transparency, no thought about supporting the local private industry.
Better to send the money elsewhere...that is the Chávez way for sustainable development several months before the local elections.
At least Lukashenko's government is doing something that benefits the Belorussian economy.
Addenda:
1)
What will those houses look like? Will they be adequate for the Venezuelan climate? What would the Venezuelan government say if we had an opposition that could raise some questions about how the decision was made?
2)
I have been looking for further information on that company and its directors. There is little out there, it is all related to Venezuela. In fact, it was created because of the Venezuelan deal, as we can read here. In a forum I read the director, Maksim Erokhov (nothing else about him on the Net in Russian), said those 4-story buildings will be inexpensive because they would not have lifts or air conditioning or (well, surprise, surprise) heating system. I wonder what else they won't have. There is some basic stuff in English also here about the sites in Tejerías and Barinas.
3) By the way, among the things Belorussians claim is that Venezuela will produce, together with Belorussian technology up to 7 million barrels of oil per day for 2012. Give me a break!
As we know, since Tascón published the list of all Venezuelans who signed for the referendum against Chávez, we have a political and economic apartheid in our country. Someone from the board of directors of a company signed against Chávez? No work from the government (which is the main provider of work in Venezuela by far).
In the Belorussian newsportal Tut.by, here, there is some further information about the deal. The Venezuelan government is going to spend in total 300 million dollars for those houses.
We might wonder: are Belorussian construction companies so special that they are exporting everywhere and Venezuela just decided to go for an obvious offer? The same article gives us a hint: in the first quarter of this year, the whole Belorussian field of construction had exported products for 23.5 million dollars. The same article says Belarus had established three state engineering companies. One of them is for logistics and transport, one for construction in the Leningrad region and one, Belzarubezhstroy («Белзарубежстрой»), basically for building stuff in Venezuela (Bel is for Belarus, zarube for zarubezhom, abroad, stroy for construction, but they could have called it "Belvestroy" or Belchavezstroy for all I care).
As usual since Chávez took over: no open biddings, no transparency, no thought about supporting the local private industry.
Better to send the money elsewhere...that is the Chávez way for sustainable development several months before the local elections.
At least Lukashenko's government is doing something that benefits the Belorussian economy.
Addenda:
1)
What will those houses look like? Will they be adequate for the Venezuelan climate? What would the Venezuelan government say if we had an opposition that could raise some questions about how the decision was made?
2)
I have been looking for further information on that company and its directors. There is little out there, it is all related to Venezuela. In fact, it was created because of the Venezuelan deal, as we can read here. In a forum I read the director, Maksim Erokhov (nothing else about him on the Net in Russian), said those 4-story buildings will be inexpensive because they would not have lifts or air conditioning or (well, surprise, surprise) heating system. I wonder what else they won't have. There is some basic stuff in English also here about the sites in Tejerías and Barinas.
3) By the way, among the things Belorussians claim is that Venezuela will produce, together with Belorussian technology up to 7 million barrels of oil per day for 2012. Give me a break!