May 21, 2003 <a href=www.kplctv.com>kplctv.com, Reported by: Rhonda Kitchens

From food processing to banking, the City of Lake Charles is looking to bring more international trade opportunities to the lake area.

Sean Kelley, the Senior Commercial Officer in Caracas, Venezuela was the guest speaker at a luncheon Tuesday at the Port of Lake Charles.

Kelley spoke about the energy and trade development in Venezuela, and says, in the near future, this could be the perfect way for folks in the community to market their goods internationally. "President Chavez has restricted access to exchange controls so the importers cannot access dollars therefore they cannot import. So there's no sense in promoting exports to Venezuela in the immediate future however there are traditional sectors that have invest prospects and as this situation changes as the foreign exchange gets released there will be an influx of imports into Venezuela for these sectors."

Kelley's trip to Southwest Louisiana is in recognition of World Trade Week.

Tuesday, May 20, 2003
(05-20) 18:47 PDT (AP) -- NY194

CARACAS, Venezuela (<a href=www.sfgate.com>AP) -- After claiming it couldn't afford to participate in the Miss Universe contest, the Miss Venezuela organization confirmed Tuesday its contestant will take the stage after all.

Venezuelan media magnate Gustavo Cisneros, head of the Cisneros Group, will pay for Mariangel Ruiz to attend the June 3 event in Panama, the organization confirmed in a statement on its Web site.

"Venezuela will participate in the annual Miss Universe pageant," the organization said. Officials couldn't immediately be reached by telephone late Tuesday.

Venezuela has one of the world's best records at international beauty competitions. Since 1979, Venezuelan women have won four Miss Universe titles, five Miss Worlds and three Miss Internationals.

The organization claimed last week that Venezuela's strict foreign exchange controls, imposed by President Hugo Chavez during a general strike in January, prevented it from obtaining $80,000 needed to send Miss Ruiz, a tall, 23-year-old brunette, to the pageant.

Miss Venezuela President Osmel Sousa said the organization had the funds in the local bolivar currency but could not exchange them for dollars.

Edgar Hernandez, president of the government agency in charge of authorizing dollar sales, said last week he wasn't aware that the organization had applied for the dollars. He said the agency would consider granting the funds if the organization asked for them.

Officials at Miss Venezuela sponsor Venevision television -- owned by the Cisneros Group -- declined to comment last week. On its Web site Tuesday, Venevision stood by its original claim that Venezuela's economic woes threatened Miss Ruiz's candidacy.

Cisneros and Chavez have long been at odds. Cisneros claims Chavez's government is cracking down on press freedom; Chavez claims Cisneros has been involved in efforts to destabilize his government.

On the Net:

www.missvenezuela.com

noticiero.venevision.net

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Tuesday, May 20, 2003 By: Jose Gregorio Pineda & Jose Gabriel Angarita

VenAmCham's Jose Gregorio Pineda (chief economist) and Jose Gabriel Angarita (economist) write: A controversy has recently sprung up about whether a foreign reserve recovery to the US$18-20 billion range might lead to a lifting of exchange controls, or at least a relaxation of them. But economic analysts consider such a scenario very difficult to achieve, in view of the economic conditions currently prevailing in Venezuela.

Central Bank officials have made it clear that the suspension of the exchange controls will occur at some time in the future and that the current system will be replaced by something else. One of the most important constraints on the adoption of any new foreign exchange system is a normalization of the foreign exchange inflow from oil exports, and that depends entirely on the behavior of international oil prices.

Though this could happen in the second half of the year, it will still be necessary to overcome a variety of problems, including excessive macroeconomic and political volatility which encourage capital flight, and the impact a lifting of the exchange and price controls could have on the economic variables, especially when those effects gain strength the longer the controls remain in place.

One of the options the authorities are examining is the introduction of a tax on foreign exchange transactions and a determination of which transactions would be subject thereto, on the understanding that imports of goods needed by national industry to operate would not be taxes; this arrangement would be accompanied by a monitoring of all transactions taking place in the foreign exchange market.

The feasibility of implementing a system of this kind is directly contingent on the favorable expectations it could generate. And expectations would surely improve if the supply of foreign exchange to the private sector in significant amounts and on a steady basis gets under way, and if the political and social conflict is overcome. All that would make it possible to stimulate national production, which is now deeply depressed by the controls, while minimizing their negative impact and speeding up the control system's relaxation or complete elimination.

Tue May 20, 2003 05:23 PM ET By Todd Benson

SAO PAULO, Brazil, May 20 (<a href=reuters.com>Reuters) - Concerns that the United States may be backing off its "strong dollar" policy might cause headaches from Tokyo to Brussels, but the impact on Latin America's volatile currencies is likely to be less painful, analysts said on Tuesday.

With the exception of Ecuador, which scrapped the sucre for the U.S. dollar in 2000, the region's leading currencies tend to take their cues more from local politics and capital flows than the greenback's price against the euro or Japanese yen.

So when U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow suggested over the weekend that he was comfortable with the dollar's recent decline -- comments the White House distanced itself from on Tuesday -- the reaction in Latin America was muted at best.

"Currency traders here spend most of their time looking at domestic factors, so the whole debate about the strong dollar policy isn't likely to have much of an impact for now," said Sergio Machado, Treasury Director at Banco Fator in Sao Paulo.

"In the long run, though, a healthy American economy is good for the region as a whole, so if letting the dollar weaken fuels U.S. economic growth, it could become a factor here."

In Brazil, Latin America's biggest economy by far, the real BRBY has lost ground against the dollar this week, but traders say the pullback is more the result of profit-taking than mounting jitters in global currency markets.

Despite having weakened slightly in recent days, the real has firmed a lofty 17 percent against the dollar so far this year, bolstered by the new left-leaning government's commitment to tight fiscal policy and long-sought economic reforms.

"If anything, the dollar's continued slide (against the euro and yen) may cause the real to either keep appreciating or at least consolidate its gains," said Christian Stracke, head of emerging markets strategy at research firm CreditSights.

CHILE LOOKS TO BRAZIL

Other regional currencies often look more to Brazil than to Wall Street for direction. Like the real, the Chilean peso CLP= has backtracked in recent days as investors locked in gains after a two-month rally.

But with the Chilean economy on the upswing, economists say the peso is likely to pay scant attention to the strong dollar debate unfolding in the United States.

Even in Mexico, which sends 80 percent of its exports to the United States, few market watchers seem to be shivering at the prospect of the U.S. abandoning its strong dollar policy.

"Frankly, we don't think the United States can afford to have a weak dollar because it needs foreign financing to cover its current account deficit," said Ramon Hernandez, deputy director of economic analysis at Ixe brokerage in Mexico City.

The falling dollar is sure to be felt even less in Venezuela, where the left-wing government of President Hugo Chavez is currently holding the bolivar VEBFIX= at a fixed official rate of 1,600 to the greenback.

Further south in Argentina, where the peso ARSB= has rallied more than 16 percent in the year-to-date, investors are more concerned about the future economic policy of President-elect Nestor Kirchner, who has yet to show all his cards to the market.

"I don't think we're going to see much volatility in the currency market," noted Marcelo Barreiro, a trader at Puente Hermanos brokerage in Buenos Aires.

Reuters, 05.20.03, 3:14 PM ET By Ana Isabel Martinez

CARACAS, Venezuela, May 20 (Reuters) - Venezuela's currency control board said on Tuesday the agency had removed several officials from their posts after they were suspected of illegal practices in the allocation of U.S. dollars.

Edgar Hernandez, president of the state foreign exchange board Cadivi, told Reuters in an interview the agency planned to open more investigations into its staff to root out corruption. "We have changed three officials, without proof but under suspicion ... we will substitute all those about whom there are any doubts," the retired army captain said.

But Hernandez, who backed Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez when he launched a botched coup bid in 1992, admitted that it was difficult for the board to prove illicit acts and graft.

Accusations of corruption in Cadivi have recently surfaced after businessmen who applied to the currency board said they were approached by mysterious middlemen offering to help them access dollars. The "fixers" offered to cut through the red tape for a 12 percent commission.

Hernandez did not say whether the officials were transferred to other posts or were fired from Cadivi, which was created nearly four months ago to manage the supply of foreign currency to the private sector.

The Cadivi chief said the agency constantly monitors the bank accounts of its staff to check for unexplained deposits that could signal corruption.

"We are going to start a special operation to monitor our staff," Hernandez said.

FEW DOLLARS FOR THE ECONOMY

Legal access to foreign currency has been all but nonexistent since the controls were implemented at the beginning of February to cap dramatic capital flight and halt a sharp depreciation in the value of the local bolivar currency.

Many private local firms have been battered by the lack of foreign currency and others are facing bankruptcy because the government does not consider their products to be a priority for access to much-needed foreign currency.

Hernandez said Cadivi had authorized $205 million so far for priority goods, of which only $12 million has been handed over to companies. The economy has been starved of hard currency since Jan. 22 when the government closed the currency markets to prepare for the new controls.

The amount of dollars released in the last few months compares sharply with the $40 million to $60 million that flowed daily before the curbs were implemented. Venezuela imports about 60 percent of its goods and materials.

The lack of dollars has fostered a thriving black market which has oscillated between 2,100 bolivars and 2,400 bolivars to the dollar. The official fixed rate is 1,600 bolivars to the U.S. greenback.

Opponents of Chavez say that the government is using the currency controls to suffocate his political foes and bludgeon the private sector leaders who took part in a two-month strike that failed to remove the leftist leader from power.