Despite domestic crisis and international economic sanctions from the United States, Venezuela is having a smooth sailing with India and the country is working out new avenues to improve bilateral trade. Venezuela this week announced its decision to phase out use of dollars in oil deals and official currency exchanges and promote use of Indian Rupees along with Euros, Chinese Yuan and Russian Rouble, Pound Sterling for trading.
In an exclusive conversation with The Pioneer, the Venezuelan Ambassador to India Augusto Montiel broke the news that very soon his Government will be opening a bank account in India so that payments for the oil can be made in Indian Rupees to bypass dollars. The envoy added that India is an important partner of Venezuela and the country views India as strong major power both in BRICS and in the overall global setup.
The envoy said that despite the ongoing US economic sanctions, the Indian investments in Venezuela and collaboration in the oil sector is expanding. “The energy cooperation has increased in the last three years,” Montiel said. Five Indian companies — ONGC Videsh, Indian Oil, Oil India, Reliance and Essar — are involved into oil exploration and crude oil refining activities in Venezuela. Recently, a high-level delegation of the Venezuelan company PDVSA and the officials were in New Delhi to discuss gas production in Venezuela. Though the total annual oil imports from Venezuela, which were to the tune of $12 billion, have taken a hit due to the sharp decrease in global oil prices, the Venezuelan diplomats feel this is momentary since the overall cooperation is one the rise.
The ambassador said that in the last three years ever since the NDA Government has taken over, new avenues for cooperation have opened up. In a latest venture, Amul India is making a premium chocolate from cocoa sourced directly from Venezuelan farms. The production has started very recently and the chocolates called “Venezuela Ebony Twist” are set to be launched formally in the Indian market shortly.
“Sourced from Venezuela, made in India, the Venezuelan Cocoa will soon be part of Indian taste buds,” the envoy said while displaying the upcoming chocolate. In addition ITC is also sourcing cocoa from Venezuela for its premium chocolate brand Fabelle.
Besides, 15 pharmaceutical companies are engaged in talks with Venezuela for setting up factories in the latin American country that is facing acute shortage of international medicines due to American sanctions. Five Indian pharma companies — Cipla, Sun Pharma, Dr Reddy’s, Glenmark and Claris — are already operating in Venezuela. Impressed with their contribution the envoy recently met 15 more such companies to produce medicines in Venezuela.
“We are offering them infrastructure and ready to work labs to start production of Indian generic medicines. India has also suffered like us due to multinational medical companies that have tried to dominate and arm-twist Indian pharmaceutical industry. We want Indian companies to collaborate with us and help us develop our own generic drugs for our healthcare systems,” Montiel said.
Negotiations are on with Indian pharmaceutical companies for production of high costing medicines in oncology, cardiology, anti-biotic, pediatric drugs, HIV and other vaccines. “We want Indian companies to be core part of our pharmaceutical industry which can set up and develop a system of medical production,” said another diplomat of the Venezuelan Embassy.
The Indian film industry is also in talks with Venezuela to shoot films in la Villa del Cine (The Village of Cinema), a Government-funded Venezuelan film and television. The two countries had in 2013 signed a pact for training and education of Venezuelan film industry by the Indian side. “We propose to bring Venezuela film industry to India and similarly Indian film industry can visit Venezuela to shoot and make films with the studio and equipment installed at the la Villa del Cine,” the diplomat added.