The announcement came during a meeting held in the Venezuelan capital city of Caracas yesterday, between Venezuelan Executive Vice President Delcy Rodriguez and Wang Shouwen, a high-level official in the PRC’s International Trade organization.
The Agreement of Promotion and Reciprocal Protection of Investments Venezuela-China the two leaders signed covers a range of growth opportunities between the two countries. Besides encouraging investments between the two countries, especially from China in Venezuela, it has provisions to encourage trade in many areas, including oil sales to the PRC, as well as opportunities for collaboration in the fields of agriculture and education.
The Agreement builds on early discussions held between Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and President Xi Jinping as well as other Chinese officials in Beijing during a visit he made in September 2023.
Rodriguez described the agreement as a significant step forward in building closer relations with China. She said the latest agreements would enhance trade relations between the two countries and encourage a variety of cross-country investments between the two nations.
The terms of the deal signed yesterday provides for setting up a new China-Venezuela Business Committee to guide how the countries work together on these plans. That committee will also work to establish and take advantage of new Special Economic Zones (SEZs) to aid in logistics management associated with new business opportunities the group may identify.
The Venezuelan Executive Vice President said the new arrangements should encourage a significant boost to shipments of Venezuelan avocados, beans, cocoa, coffee, and Seaford to the PRC.
Rodriguez also noted during her comments about the meeting that her country is planning to become part of the BRICS group of nations sometime this year, of which China is a founding member and South American neighbor Brazil is also a part. Such connections should enable easier trade on a global scale, in part because BRICS is dedicated to working around the U.S. dollar-dominated payments system, but also because Venezuela will now be part of a broader group of countries linked internationally.