Economy
Amidst increasing tension due to the short supply of foreign currency, businessmen opt to gradually lift the bar on free foreign exchange, by common consent with the Executive branch of government.

The suggestion was given by Noel Álvarez, the president of the Federation of Trade and Industry Chambers (Fedecámaras), who views exchange control as anachronistic and ineffective.

In an interview at his office, the business leader also listed the steps expected from the government in the field of economic adjustments.

What do businessmen recommend to energize the economy?

In the face of falling oil revenues and savings, the government needs to encourage businesses to invest in Venezuela. There is one magic word only, which is confidence. We must instill confidence and such confidence should be mirrored in a number of clear economic and social policies which enable businesses to develop their activity, which basically includes investment and wealth generation.

Businessmen usually invest, but in many cases, short-term investments started to be made. A large amount of oil revenues stretched demand and we were not developing the productive apparatus. This was a serious mistake by the government. We did not seize the opportunity to diversify the economy through building, tourism and many other projects in order not to depend so much on oil.

What is the specific weight of a difficult access to foreign currency among the hindrances faced by the productive sector?

Exchange control has always been a dire scheme in all the countries around the world, where it has been implemented. In Venezuela, it is also a failed scheme. To my way of thinking, except for some conditions which should be gradually removed for lack of confidence in economic policies, the government should phase it out. Rather than an economic mechanism to safeguard the economy, it is a tool for political control.

What would be the less traumatic way to remove exchange control?

It is very difficult to say. Firstly, there is the need to instill confidence into economic policies; otherwise it will be very difficult. Removing it all of a sudden with hardly reliable policies would cause other things I do not want to think about. We must start by common understanding, to instill confidence, and economic agents should be certain that any policies to be developed from that moment on will be the correct ones. We should be able to invest and at also, a given time, be free to stop investment by means of ready access to the market. We are going nowhere with a coercive policy. We must dismantle it (exchange control) in a concerted effort for it to be as less traumatic as possible for the country.

Freddy Campos
EL UNIVERSAL