AICEP Will Open a Trade Office in Caracas, and the Economy Minister Is Planning a Business Trip to Venezuela in Late October

AICEP, Portugal's trade and investment agency, is to open a commercial office in Caracas, and the economy minister, Manuel Castro Almeida, is planning to visit Venezuela at the end of October with a delegation of Portuguese companies. Both announcements were made in the Venezuelan capital this week, where an AICEP adviser has spent a week meeting businesses.

"I came to Venezuela with a double mission," João Mota Pinto, an adviser to AICEP's board, told Lusa. "The first is to learn about economic conditions in Venezuela, because our agency is going to open a commercial office at the [Portuguese] embassy, so that we can support Portuguese companies doing business with Venezuelan companies and in Venezuela." The second, he said, was to prepare the minister's trip.

"A country in change"

Mota Pinto described what he found as "a very positive surprise". "It is a country that is obviously changing. It still has big challenges but, above all, it has immense opportunities for Portuguese companies," he said, while warning that the market must be entered "with some caution", taking "safe steps". He listed construction, machinery for industry, food, and some services linked to electricity among the sectors with openings, and said Luso-Venezuelans could also benefit, since the aim is to bring Portuguese firms to form partnerships with local ones.

Venezuela has been going through a political transition since 3 January, when a United States military operation in Caracas captured Nicolás Maduro and removed him from power.

A visit "at a very advanced stage"

Portugal's ambassador in Caracas, Manuel Frederico Pinheiro da Silva, confirmed the ministerial trip at a meeting with business people at his official residence. "The visit is being planned at a very advanced stage. The plan really is that," he said, adding that the minister, probably the Secretary of State for Portuguese Communities, Emídio Sousa, and a business delegation would come at the end of October to meet Venezuelan companies and authorities as well as Portuguese and Luso-Venezuelan business people. No exact date was given.

Emídio Sousa has already been to Venezuela twice since January. "Portugal remains the only country in the European Union that, since the events of January this year, has sent members of its government to this country to talk, to encourage reforms," the ambassador said, and to keep in permanent contact with the Portuguese community there.

A large community on both sides of the Atlantic

The Portuguese community in Venezuela, much of it with roots in Madeira, is one of the largest in Latin America, and many Luso-Venezuelan families have moved to Portugal in recent years. Earlier this month the first containers of humanitarian aid collected in Portugal arrived at the port of La Guaira.

On Thursday, the foreign minister, Paulo Rangel, met his Venezuelan counterpart, Félix Plasencia, at the UN General Assembly in New York. Portugal's diplomacy said it would remain available "to build bridges, promote dialogue and contribute to a more stable, democratic and prosperous Venezuela", including during its coming term on the UN Security Council.