Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez inked seven agreements on Tuesday in a bid to step up bilateral cooperation.
"The impact of these agreements in Venezuela is amazing. I want to thank Brazil for its disinterested cooperation," said Chavez at a joint press conference held in the northern Brazilian city of Manaoz.
The agreements, signed during their regular meeting, includes building an iron and steel plant and furthering cooperation on installation of a refinery. The two presidents meet every three months to discuss bilateral cooperation.
Under the agreement on the iron and steel plant, Brazilian company Andrade Gutierrez will build for the National Iron and Steel of Venezuela a plant capable of producing 1.5 million tons of steel per year in the state of Bolivar.
The refinery agreements set conditions for Brazil's state oil company Petrobras and Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA to jointly build a refinery, Abreu e Lima, in Brazil's Pernambuco state.
Petrobras has already begun to work on the project and the two companies are negotiating a partnership in which Petrobras is to hold a 60-percent stake and PDVSA, a 40 percent stake.
Details of this cooperation are yet to be worked out.
The two countries also signed agreements on house construction, aerial services and agriculture.
According to both presidents, these agreements will enable oil-rich Venezuela to use its resources to invest in industry and agriculture.
Source: Xinhua
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