CARACAS (AFP) — Vietnam's president and Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez signed a deal for a 200-million-dollar joint fund and 15 cooperation projects, during the first visit here by a head of state from the communist nation.
The fund is similar to deals Venezuela has with allies China and Iran and will finance joint projects, President Chavez said after meeting with Nguyen Minh Triet, at the end of a two-day visit, at his Miraflores Palace late Thursday.
"We won't lack resources. While right now there's a worldwide crisis of funds, a credit crisis, we're creating funds and banks and finance mechanisms," Chavez said.
A first joint project using the fund -- for an energy-saving light bulb factory due to produce 74 million bulbs per year -- was already under construction in western Venezuela, Chavez said.
Triet and Chavez also signed 15 cooperation deals, in fields from technology to tourism and energy, including the setting up of a joint venture to develop existing reserves in eastern Venezuela's oil-rich Orinoco basin.
Since Chavez toured Vietnam in 2006, his government has stepped up bilateral relations with the Southeast Asian nation, whose Communist Party General Secretary Nong Duc Manh visited Caracas early last year.
State-run energy companies Petroleos de Venezuela and PetroVietnam have announced a number of joint projects since the Chavez visit, and PetroVietnam has a concession in Orinoco.
Anti-US Chavez underlined his country's growing economic ties, not only with Vietnam but also with China and Russia -- whose president, Dmitry Medvedev, is due to visit Venezuela next week along with Russian warships.
"A new international financial system will be created. It won't come from Washington, it's from here, from the south and from our allied countries like Russia, China -- countries like us, Vietnam, Venezuela," Chavez added.
Triet was due to travel to Lima, Peru, from Venezuela, for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit at the weekend.
During his historic visit, Triet added his support to the leftist Venezuelan leader ahead of weekend elections seen as a referendum on Chavez's socialist policies.
"I've seen with my own eyes this country and the revolutionary process going on today," Triet said during a joint address broadcast across national TV stations. "Socialism will surely win out in our countries."
Vietnam and Venezuela set up diplomatic ties in 1989, but bilateral trade reached only 11.7 million dollars last year, according to the Vietnam News Agency.
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