Chavez accelerates Russia-Venezuela bank to be founded

CARACAS, July 11 (Itar-Tass) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez
signed a document, "which should accelerate a Russian-Venezuelan bank to
be founded in order to boost bilateral cooperation," the Venezuelan News
Agency (AVN) reported on Sunday.
"A Russian-Venezuelan bank will diversify the portfolio of the
securities in the Venezuelan National Development Fund," Hugo Chavez said
at a ceremony to sign the document. When taking financial or economic
decisions Venezuela does not depend from the International Monetary Fund
any longer, he said. "We live in a free country, which has major
capabilities for foreign and domestic financing," the president noted.
The countries came to the first agreement to establish a
Russian-Venezuelan bank during Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's visit
to Venezuela in November 2008. In February 2009, the Russian government
approved the foresaid project, which the Finance Ministry had drafted and
Venezuela had scrutinized preliminarily, but then the terms of the deal
were being negotiated for a long time. The final agreement was signed in
Moscow in October 2010 during President Hugo Chavez's visit.
The Russian-Venezuelan bank was earlier reported to focus on the
servicing and funding of the projects in the oil and gas sectors and the
mining industry, electric power industry, metallurgy, infrastructure,
machine building and petrochemistry in Russia and Venezuela.