Chapter 1248 Orinoco Mineral Belt
Venezuela has abundant oil reserves and is one of the world's major oil exporters and a founding member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
Venezuela's economy is highly dependent on oil, and the oil industry is a pillar industry of the national economy.
Since Chavez nationalized the oil industry, the exploration and development, production and sales, processing and export of oil have all been under the unified responsibility of the National Oil Company.
The National Oil Company has also become the largest state-owned enterprise in Venezuela.
Chavez's biggest confidence comes from the huge income from oil and natural gas.
In addition to the huge income from the oil and natural gas industry, Chavez has not relaxed in other aspects.
Venezuela is also rich in mineral resources. The Orinoco Mineral Belt covers an area of 110,000 square kilometers, with proven gold reserves of 41.36 million tons, prospective reserves of 7,000 tons, diamonds of 33.79 million carats, iron ore proven reserves of 3.64 billion tons, bauxite of 14.68 billion tons, in addition to rich coltan, kaolin, copper and other mineral resources.
The final commercial value of the Orinoco Mineral Belt is expected to reach 2 trillion US dollars, including gold, iron ore, bauxite, etc.
This time, Chavez wants to introduce Huaxia Capital to carry out joint ventures with the Venezuelan government.
After all, it is not easy for Venezuela to develop the Orinoco Mineral Belt by itself.
And through this large-scale cooperation, the relationship between the two sides can be promoted and made closer.
Zhou Zhenguo is not only the general manager of Panshan Group's mercenaries in Latin America, but also the general manager of Panshan Group in Latin America.
And Panshan Group, as the largest company in Huaxia and with an excellent reputation, is naturally the best partner.
In recent years, he has nationalized oil, gas, minerals, railways, etc., and Panshan Group has given great support. Although Venezuela has also paid the ransom, Chavez actually knows that the ransom is not enough for its original value.
Of course, Chavez is relieved that Huaxia is thousands of miles away from Venezuela, which means that there will be no conflicts between the two sides and they will only cooperate. Moreover, there are very few Chinese in Venezuela, only 400,000 in total, accounting for less than 1.5% of the total population of Venezuela.
Moreover, the Chinese in Venezuela are either skilled workers, entrepreneurs, teachers, or honest farmers. They have always been honest and never participated in politics, let alone joined the army. Their reputation has always been very good, so Chavez is naturally very relieved.
And the key is that these 400,000 people are all his supporters and support his policies.
Zhou Zhenguo's expression moved when he heard Chavez talk about the Orinoco Mineral Belt.
He naturally knew about the Orinoco Mineral Belt, because Panshan Group was deeply involved in the exploration of the Orinoco Mineral Belt.
After all, Venezuela's own exploration capabilities alone cannot complete such a huge amount of engineering.
Venezuela's industrial capacity is not strong, mainly based on the oil industry, and others include gold mining, diamonds, coal, etc., and then steel, aluminum, power chemicals, building materials, textiles, food processing, tobacco, rubber, wood, etc.
It is only because of China's investment and construction that we have the current industry.
"How to cooperate?" Zhou Zhenguo asked.
"Our Venezuelan government must hold at least 55% of the shares, and you or our domestic private investors can hold up to 45% of the shares." Chavez said.
Chavez wants to nationalize major industries, but it does not mean that the state-owned shareholding must reach 100%, but that the state-owned shareholding must reach a controlling stake.
Zhou Zhenguo was weighing the pros and cons in his mind.
After all, this investment requires tens of billions of dollars or even hundreds of billions of dollars, and it is risky.
Zhou Zhenguo pondered for a moment and said, "Chavez, I will report this to the country, you wait for my news."
"No problem!" Chavez smiled.
Such a big business will naturally not be easily achieved.
Even Chavez plans to visit China once.
In the afternoon, Zhou Zhenguo came to a port, which was originally invested and built by Panshan Group. After Chavez nationalized the port, Panshan Group chose to hold port shares + ransom plan, and currently holds 45% of this port.
There is a cargo ship here, currently loading cocoa and coffee.
Venezuela has a long history of growing coffee and cocoa. Before the rise of the oil industry, coffee and cocoa once occupied an important position in Venezuela's national economy.
Venezuelan coffee and cocoa are of good quality and pure taste. They have always been selling well in the international market and are also very popular in China.
Many Chinese coffee shops hand-grind coffee using Venezuelan coffee.
Venezuela's agricultural products mainly include rice, cocoa, coffee, sugarcane, corn, beans, potatoes, etc.
Cocoa and coffee are the most famous, with a large annual export volume.
The trade settlement between the two sides adopts the RMB + US dollar dual settlement system, with part of the payment in RMB and part in US dollars.
Chavez and Zhou Zhenguo chatted and laughed.
The total arable land area in Venezuela is about 30 million hectares, or 400 million mu. If it were in China, 400 million mu of land would be enough to feed nearly 300 million people. But Venezuela is different. Although it has such a large amount of arable land, Venezuela cannot be self-sufficient in food. The Venezuelan National Food Corporation needs to import a large amount of food every year to meet the domestic market demand.
Among them, Panshan Group is the largest food trading party.
Panshan Group transports food from Brazil and Argentina, and then sells it to Venezuela, earning some intermediate price.
Chavez said: "The more I read "Selected Works of Mao Zedong", the more I admire your Mao. Facts have proved that he is right. He is like a beacon, guiding me!"
Zhou Zhenguo smiled. No one knows whether Chavez's words are true or false. Maybe he is just being polite.
Then Chavez talked about his plan to visit China.
Zhou Zhenguo's face moved, a little surprised.
Since 1998, because of the close relationship between the two sides, Chavez has visited China once.
Chavez has visited China this year, and now he is going to visit China again.
Such arrangements for visits are very sophisticated and will not be arranged easily.
Zhou Zhenguo smiled and said: "You are a good friend of our China, we will definitely welcome you warmly!"
"I may be in China at that time. If I am, I will treat you to a meal and do my best to be a good host!" Zhou Zhenguo said.
He returns to China twice a year, both times for vacation.
Each vacation lasts half a month, so he has a total of one month of vacation a year.
He is about to take a vacation, and he chooses to take a mid-year vacation in July or August so that he can spend more time with his children.
He feels that the people he feels most sorry for so far are his wife and children, because he has too little time to spend with them.
Fortunately, his wife manages the family in an orderly manner, and his son is also very hardworking and was admitted to the National Defense University. (End of this chapter)