June 13 (<a href=quote.bloomberg.com>Bloomberg) -- Venezuela sold $900 million of bonds to China and Qatar this week, the Financial Times reported, citing unidentified people in London and Caracas.

The debt sale was a private placement, the FT said, a transaction in which securities are sold directly to the buyers rather than through a public offering.

Finance Minister Tobias Nobrega also is considering offering investors an exchange of existing foreign-currency bonds for new longer-term debt, the report said. Nobrega met with investors in London last week, the FT said.

Venezuela is trying to stretch out debt payments after losing about $4 billion in revenue during a strike in December and January aimed at ousting President Hugo Chavez. The economy shrank 29 percent in the first quarter, the worst recession in the South American country's history.

The government swapped about $2.7 billion in domestic debt last year and another $445 million this year.

Chinese companies are competing to participate in a $675 million paper pulp project with Corporacion Venezolana de Guayana, Venezuela's state heavy-industries holding company. The company plans to pick a partner this year.

(Financial Times 6-13, 45)

For the Financial Times' Web site, see {FITM } Last Updated: June 13, 2003 05:12 EDT

5/27/03 3:08:31 AM (GMT +2) The Daily News-Business Reporter

THE payment of bribes to further business interests has increased in the last three years in Zimbabwe, which has been ranked 78th out of 80 countries in the World Economic Forum (WEF)’s 2002-2003 Global Competitiveness Report.

The southern African nation is ranked ahead of Venezuela and Guatamela, both facing severe economic crises.

Zimbabwe lagged far behind its closest neighbours Botswana and South Africa, who are ranked 24 and 53 respectively.

On a scale of one to seven, with one indicating a significant increase in bribery and seven a decline, Zimbabwe scored 2,4. It was slightly ahead of Venezuela, which scored 2,1 and Guatamela, with 2,0.

In terms of growth competitiveness, Zimbabwe was ranked 79 out of 80 in 2002, sliping from 75 in 2001.

“One of the worst performers (in economic competitiveness) remains Zimbabwe, where the economic downturn accelerated substantially in 2001 and 2002,” the WEF report said.

According to the report, Zimbabwe is ranked 76 out of 80 countries where companies had to make “undocumented extra payments or bribes” connected with the issuing of public contracts.

When deciding upon policies and contracts, government officials in Zimbabwe are said to favour well connected firms and individuals.

Zimbabwe government tenders for multi billion dollar projects have in the past five years been controversially awarded, resulting in some companies seeking the intervention of the courts to reverse the contracts.

Some contracts have been reversed, but as recently as 2001, crucial documents for a Japanese tender for the digitilastion of the country’s telephone network disappeared and have not been found.

According to the WEF report, Zimbabwe is also among the top five nations where insider trading is prevalent on the stock market.

However, allegations of insider trading have not been proved because of the absence of a legal framework to deal with such a practise.

Out of the 80 countries surveyed by the WEF, Zimbabwe is ranked 77, making it one of the economies where financial assets and wealth were not adequately protected by law.

South Africa is however ranked 21 and Botswana 24.

Since the invasion of mostly white-owned farms began in February 2000, foreign investors have questioned the sanctity of property rights in Zimbabwe, leading to most foreigners abandoning the country for its neighbours.

Fri May 23, 2003 12:22 PM ET By Pascal Fletcher

CARACAS, Venezuela (<a href=asia.reuters.com>Reuters) - Venezuela's feuding government and opposition have agreed on a political pact for a referendum on Hugo Chavez's presidency after Aug. 19, officials said on Friday.

Organization of American States Secretary General Cesar Gaviria, who has brokered months of negotiations between the two sides, achieved a consensus late Thursday on the wording of the framework agreement, an OAS official said.

"There is an agreement ... it's most likely that it will be signed Monday or Tuesday next week," the OAS official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

International mediators and foreign governments have been pressing left-winger Chavez and his opponents to commit to a referendum to end the political conflict that has gripped the world's No. 5 oil exporter for more than a year.

Chavez, who survived a coup last year and an strike in December and January, has said he is willing to submit to the constitutional referendum on his mandate. But his foes accuse him of trying to avoid a vote.

Chavez opponents accuse the populist president of ruling like a dictator and trying to install Cuba-style communism.

Gaviria flew with Chavez late Thursday to Cusco in Peru to take part in a summit of Latin American presidents.

The OAS chief, backed by a six-nation Group of Friends including the United States and Brazil, announced an earlier referendum agreement last month, but the deal collapsed when the government demanded changes and backed away from signing.

The government objected to the idea of international bodies like the OAS having a supervisory role in the referendum.

The latest compromise document set out a framework for holding the vote, including commitments by both sides to shun violence and respect campaigning by the other party.

"There is a shared, consensus text," said opposition negotiator Alejandro Armas. He said he was cautiously optimistic that the document could be signed next week.

Venezuela's constitution allows for a recall referendum on the president's rule once he has completed half of his six-year mandate. In Chavez's case, this is Aug. 19.

To trigger the referendum, the opposition must collect signatures from 20 percent of the electorate.

The government also insists that the National Assembly must first select a new National Electoral Commission, the body that oversees elections and polls.

But the assembly, where pro-Chavez deputies hold a slim majority, is still haggling over candidates for the electoral authority which would verify the signatures for a referendum. It will also revise the electoral register, which critics say is tainted by errors, including the names of deceased voters.

One opposition party has called an anti-government rally for Saturday, raising fears of possible violence that could derail the referendum deal.

Caracas, May 14 (<a href=quote.bloomberg.com>Bloomberg) -- Venezuela plans to sell $300 million of bonds within days in a private transaction, the country's first foreign bond sale in two years, a top finance ministry official said.

The government also plans to sell $400 million of bonds during the third quarter and $900 million of bonds this year through private sales, said Alejandro Dopazo, director of public credit. Dopazo would not say who plans to buy the debt or the terms of the bonds.

``We're basically concentrating on private transactions since market access is not that easy,'' Dopazo said in a telephone interview.

Venezuela may not swap some of its foreign bonds this year, Dopazo said. The finance ministry said in March that it planned to swap during the second quarter some of its foreign bonds maturing this year and next. The government may not sell foreign bonds on the market this year, Dopazo added. Last Updated: May 14, 2003 11:55 EDT

GRANMA • Signing in Miraflores Palace in the presence of President Hugo Chávez

CARACAS.— Cuba and Venezuela today signed an agreement to avoid double taxation and fiscal fraud, alongside eight trade agreements within the framework of the Comprehensive Cooperation Agreement existing between the two countries, Prensa Latina reports.

The ceremony took place at the Miraflores Presidential Palace in the presence of Hugo Chávez, president;José Vicente Rangel, vice president; the Council of Ministers and heads of autonomous institutions; and Julio Montes, Venezuelan ambassador in Cuba.

The Cuban side was represented by Marta Lomas, minister for foreign investment and economic cooperation; specialists from that agency; Germán Sánchez Otero, the Cuban ambassador to Venezuela; and other officials from the Cuban diplomatic mission.

The agreement on double taxation is applied in Cuba as a tax on profits, personal income, ownership of possession of goods, and in Venezuela as income tax and business assets.

The contracts signed cover tourism, technical advice in that sector and personnel training for expansion in that industry, and plans for the environmental management of coastal areas within this sector.

In the agricultural sector, Cubans and Venezuelans are to continue works on the Ezequiel Zamora Sugarcane Agribusiness being developed in the state of Barinas, as well as technical assistance in the Pío Tamayo sugar mill for cultivation this year.

Another of the documents signed refers to the training of 20 Venezuelan science and technology researchers and the purchase by Caracas of Cuban medical equipment for the early detection of hearing problems in children.

Cuba is to lend technical assistance for the construction of 1,400 low-cost, prefabricated homes, the first group to be started in the state of Nueva Esparta; as well as technical-cultural services from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports.

Minister Lomas noted that these contracts complete the cooperation agreement for this year and initiate labors to incorporate further activities in 2004.

She emphasized gains in the field of health, both in terms of medical supplies to Venezuela and the work of the 268 Cuban doctors lending their services in that nation, who are also now working alongside their Venezuelan counterparts in the capital’s barrios.

She recalled that more than 3,000 Venezuelan patients have been treated without charge in Havana, with 1,400 mainly orthopedic, cardiovascular and ophthalmic operations.

The Cuban minister also praised the labors of the more than 760 sports trainers in 20 Venezuelan states and the work of specialists in the sugarcane and agricultural industries.

Finally Marta Lomas referred to the presence in Cuba of more than 700 Venezuelan students on medical courses or being trained as sports technicians and social workers. “We are at the point of consolidating this integrationist program, which is our commitment to Simón Bolívar, José Martí, Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez,” she concluded