Newsletter12

Bolivarian Government of Venezuela

Ministry of People’s Power for Foreign Affairs, Office of the Deputy Minister for Africa

Permanent Mission of Venezuela to the Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in Kenya Concurrent to Rwanda, United Nations Environment programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Human Uganda,Tanzania and Somalia Settlements Programme (UN Habitat).

WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

Vol. 3: Issue 12, 27th March, 2017

Pico Bolívar

Pico Bolívar is the highest mountain in Venezuela, at 4,978 metres.

Located in Mérida State, its top is permanently covered with granular snow and three small glaciers

Venezuela has a high Human Development Index

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) released a report that places Venezuela as one of the countries with a high Human Development Index (HDI).

The HDI is a scientific indicator applied by UNDP to measure advances in life expectancy, literacy and the quality of life of the population. The total HDI measurement is determined by a band between zero and one.

The closer to one, the higher the HDI of the country being evaluated.

In the report, Venezuela stands out with a score of 0.767 over Brazil (0.754), Peru (0.740) and Colombia (0.727).

UNDP warns in the report that in spite of the general progress made in the Human Development Index in general during the last 25 years, extreme poverty and exclusion persist in Latin America, mainly due to the unequal distribution of income.

It directly recommends promoting inclusive growth, with an emphasis on women and mobilizing resources to meet human development priorities.

"Investments focused on human development priorities can deliver low-cost but high-quality services and infrastructure for disadvantaged and marginalized groups", the report said.

Venezuela has maintained a policy of protection of the social rights of the people, despite the destabilizing plans of the national right, in alliance with its international agents, which includes the lauching of an economic war (characterized by hoarding, surcharges and contraband food and medicine); an international financial blockade (blocking accounts for the importation of inputs and priority items, partisan use of Country Risk); and fallacies to sow doubt around the solvency of Venezuela in the payment of its international commitments.

The report warns of the role of women, who continue to be poorer in general terms, partly because of unpaid work that undermines their professional and personal development. It also warns about the deepening of inequalities against the indigenous population, that on average receive less years of education.

The report highlights the need to target universal policies to reduce human development deficits among the excluded.

Inside This Issue 1.Venezuela has a high Human Development Index 2. Respect Venezuela

3. Venezuela joins the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

4. Venezuelan film festival 2017 5. Promoting the unknown about Africa

www.correodelorinoco.gob.ve

Respect Venezuela !

2

Venezuela joins the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

The president of the Republic, Nicolรกs Maduro, informed on Thursday the 23rd March, 2017 that Venezuela has joined the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, which has more than 70 member countries.

"Venezuela today officially entered as a full member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank founded by the People's Republic of China," he said during the inauguration ceremony of the Venezuelan Power Expo 2017 in Caracas.

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank was established in 2014 by Chinese President Xi Jinping in an attempt to gain a foothold in the global financial order, which is dominated by imperial forces, in order to meet part of the financing needs of infrastructure projects in the countries of the continent.

Maduro stressed that with the country's entry into this bank, Venezuela will have access to financing and technical support for the development of projects in the nation. " Our commissions of work for various routes have been negotiating and working with the People's Republic of China on this entry and this will mean access to financial investment, engineering for development projects for the future Venezuela that merits a large contingent of financial resources to have infrastructure, public services and roads " he said.

In addition to Venezuela, 12 countries also joined the Bank: Peru, Afghanistan, Armenia, Fiji, Hong Kong, Timor-Leste, Belgium, Canada, Ethiopia, Hungary, Ireland and Sudan. www.avn.info.ve

3

On the occassion of the 4th ANNIVERSARY of the SOWING of President Hugo ChĂĄvez

rd

3VENEZUELA

Alliance Francaise Nairobi

FESTIVAL (VFFN) Nairobi

1 2

Oriana

Duration: 88 min Language: Spanish (with English sub-titles)

29th March 2017

La casa del fin de los tiempos ( The House at the End of Time ) Duration: 1hr 41min Language: Spanish (with English sub-titles)

30th March 2017

TIME: 6:30pm Ministry of People’s Bolivarian Government Power for Foreign Affairs of Venezuela Office of the Deputy Minister for Africa

Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in Kenya Concurrent to Rwanda,Uganda, Tanzania and Somalia

Permanent Mission of Venezuela to the United Nations Environment programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN Habitat).

KENYA:

RWANDA:

PROMOTING THE UNKNOWN ABOUT AFRICA

UGANDA: TANZANIA: SOMALIA:

Uganda: East Africa’s hydro powerhouse Uganda has unveiled plans to become East Africa’s top electricity producer through the development of some hydropower stations. “ Our strategy is to develop half a dozen hydropower stations on the Nile,” Ibrahim Kasita, Uganda’s director of communication in the ministry of energy and mineral development told African Business Magazine. In addition to the three existing hydropower stations – Owen Falls Dam, Nalubaale Power Station and Bujagali Falls Power station – all located near the source of the Nile in the industrial town of Jinja, the East African nation is planning to build more power projects in the Nile valley.

The entire cost of developing the planned hydropower projects along the Nile Valley is yet to be established, however, feasibility studies for some of the power stations is already underway.

By 2019, Uganda, which currently generates 900MW of electricity, will see its power output outstrip that of Kenya and Tanzania, whose current output is 1,560MW and 1,200MW, respectively.

Uganda will add another 800MW to its current output through the development of the Ayago Hydropower project. The funding for the Ayago project – which will push the country’s electricity output to 1,700MW by the end of next year – will mainly be financed by Chinese investors, according to Kasita.

“The Chinese government has shown commitment to help Uganda develop the country’s hydropower potential along the Nile Valley,” he said. “We expect Beijing to fund these projects.”

Previous attempts

failed in the early 1990s because the economy was in doldrums following the political violence of the 1980s. But after 1995, political stability spurred the economy to grow at an average rate of 6%, leading to the soaring of electricity demands.

However, President Yoweri Museveni’s government at the time could not raise the necessary funding to expand Uganda’s electricity output to meet demand. Instead, the state persuaded Industrial Promotion Services (IPS), which is owned by Kenya-based Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development, to build the $900m Bujagali Power station, which was constructed in 2007 and commissioned in 2012.

Funding for the project came from IPS, US-based Sithe Global Power LCC, International Finance Corporation (IFC), African Development Bank (Afdb), European Investment Bank and other financial institutions.

The involvement of the various multilateral financial organisations, however, effectively drove electricity prices for consumers to $0.11/kwh, which made Uganda’s industrial output uncompetitive compared to other East African countries, such as Kenya, which charged customers about $0.075/kwh for electricity. Electricity prices in Uganda fell to 0.072$/kwh in 2016, after the government renegotiated loan terms with the Bujagali financiers.

Following the difficulties of the Bujagali power station, the Ugandan government has sought to negotiate bilateral arrangements with the government of China for long-term soft loans to ensure electricity prices are kept low.

The previous privatisation policy aimed at attracting investors to exploit the vast hydropower potential on the River Nile valley

www.africanbusinessmagazine.com

5