Venezuela hopes to join BRICS “as soon as possible”

Venezuela hopes to join the BRICS grouping as soon as possible, the Caribbean country’s Vice-President for Economy and Minister of Industry and National Production, José Felix Rivas Alvarado, told Sputnik in an interview.

“We hope that this will be as fast as possible, because Venezuela is fighting against forces that want to dissolve the nation-state, it is on the side of a multipolar world and a new economic and financial architecture, and the BRICS are important,” Rivas Alvarado said in an interview at the new St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, held in Russia from June 5 to 8.

“BRICS support for Venezuela’s recovery is also important and this is a platform where we need to strengthen and consolidate our relations with Russia and with all BRICS member countries,” he added.

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Alternative financial structures

Asked about the specifics of economic and commercial relations between Venezuela and Russia, Rivas Alvarado stressed that the two sides have made great progress in “building alternative mechanisms such as financing and means of payment.”

“The same coercive measures lead us to look for other forms of payment, to switch to national currencies, to consolidate alternative financial architectures to the dominant financial architecture. This is no longer a question of academia or speeches, but we are doing it with facts and strong connections, we have made a lot of progress in this regard and we will continue to move forward,” he stressed.

Cooperation with Russia

Rivas Alvarado said one of the keys to Venezuela’s economic recovery is cooperation with Russia, which has enabled Venezuela to counter Western attacks on its main targets, such as the “oil industry, energy industry.”

Economic diversification

He also noted that progress was being made in reducing dependence on oil exports.

“The lesson we learned from the blockade is to try not to rely on a very important main export item, which is oil, which has a high internal rate of return. However, this dependence makes us vulnerable. So “Our economic strategy at this stage is production diversification, that is, import substitution, and we are moving in two directions: exports, because we need foreign exchange, but also strengthening national production.”

Food sovereignty

As far as agriculture is concerned, not only can the “serious shortage” be resolved, but exports can also be started.

“Currently, agricultural products from the countryside, livestock, are being exported, but also with added value, added BroadCast Unitedlectual value, and we have a very important view with our strategic partners,” he said.

Health and Pharmaceuticals

Sectors such as health and pharmaceuticals are also recovering, which is a matter of survival in the context of “transnational pharmacies going abroad”.

“We have Russian companies in the pharmaceutical industry, which is a very important industry because it targets health and certain diseases that affect the population,” he added.

A mandatory measure, a huge opportunity

Rivas Alvarado said that “despite the negative effects of coercive measures, they create huge opportunities” to transform Venezuela, a country very rich in primary resources, into an exporter of value-added products, thanks to the scientific and technological contributions of allies like Russia.

“I think we have great possibilities, as the forum showed, with the presence of different business and government actors from both countries, who have great complementarity,” said Venezuela’s Vice President for Economy and Minister of Industry and National Production.