A Cuban friend recently told me that a post-Chavista Venezuela would need at least two generations to reach a decent level of economic development. Being an optimist by nature, I told him that I had a different view based on the following premises:
FirstVenezuela is still a rich country. Despite the 20-year looting carried out by Chavismo, its perpetrators were unable to efficiently extract and process the largest oil reserves and the eighth largest natural gas reserves in the world, nor the enormous reserves of bauxite, coal, gold, iron ore , bitumen and coltan that Venezuela accumulates in its fortunate bosom.
The country also has large areas of fertile arable land and abundant sources of fresh water. Around a quarter of the total area of Venezuela is suitable for agricultural and livestock activities.
In addition, Venezuela has a highly favorable geographic position for receptive tourism. Its natural biodiversity offers visitors a variety of attractive landscapes ranging from the plains to the Andean mountains, jungles and sunny beaches throughout the year.
SecondDespite the fact that the efficiency of the oil sector, basic industries and the manufacturing sector has sunk to its deepest levels, there is an impressive reserve of managerial, technical and skilled human resources who would return to their homeland with a vision universal of life, different languages, new skills and, above all, with a post degree in humility received in the school of adversity. This influx of fresh blood into the Venezuelan economic fabric would bear excellent fruit in the short term for our devastated country.
Third, the attention of the markets and investors of the financial universe would settle on the turn that the Venezuelan economy takes. Significant flows of foreign direct investment and repatriated capital will feed the financial flow required for reconstruction. To these resources must be added the cooperation funds provided by multilateral organizations and the deposits recovered from the international financial system that are the product of corruption.
Fourth, the reconstruction of the Venezuelan economy will require a superhuman effort because the country's aggregate productive capacity is handicapped by technological obsolescence and the limited availability of capital goods. In fact, this situation would necessarily lead to a massive renovation of the technological park of the economy, at all levels. As a result, we would have a cutting-edge industrial sector with high levels of productivity.
Being able to dispose of the raw materials supplied by mother nature, the labor force and the entrepreneurial capacity leveraged by the return of millions of compatriots to their native land, and the inflow of capital in search of yield and legal certainty, the launching pad for a new country would be solidly in place. Hopefully, these happy circumstances would pave the way for the first economic miracle of the XNUMXst century to materialize in Venezuela.
Source: https://www.elglobonews.com/un-nuevo-pais/economia/elglobofl/