From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord@igc.org>
Newsgroups: soc.culture.latin-america
Date: 13 Aug 92 14:49 PDT
Subject: IPS:Venezuela: Foreign Firms
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1473800244:000:3484
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!hrcoord    Aug 13 14:49:00 1992


From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord>
Subject: IPS:Venezuela: Foreign Firms

/* Written 12:04 am  Aug 13, 1992 by newsdesk in
cdp:ips.englibrary */ Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all
rights reserved.  Permission to re- print within 7 days of
original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Title: VENEZUELA: FOREIGN FIRMS WITHDRAW FROM AQUEDUCT BIDDING

caracas, aug 10 (ips) -- five international firms, which for
several years had been interested in bidding for the right to
operate the metropolitan aqueduct that supplies water to the
capital, have withdrawn their original offers to the venezuelan
government.

of the five firms, one did not participate in the bidding, three
withdrew their offers when they were told of the venezuelan
government's conditions, and one gave a a price that was too low.

the three groups which refrained from making their final offers
were headed by the french firm 'lyonnaise des eaux' and the
spanish 'aguas de barcelona, 'el canal isabel ii' from spain, and
the french firm 'saur' and its spanish partner 'aguas de
valencia'.

the british firm biwater-thames, whose offer was considered too
low, had thought it could benefit from its supposed association
with the firm which controls water distribution in venezuela.

''what happened in the aqueduct bidding shows that we are not
bowing down to accept conditions which international firms want to
impose,'' venezuela's environmental minister enrique colmenares
said. but he did not reject the possibility of a new bidding with
fewer requirements.

officials hope that the country's serious problems of water
distribution, which is the cause of daily street protests, will be
solved through privatisation.

but colmenares said the government would not change the condition
fixing a maximum tariff which the firms could impose on the
people.  venezuela's local dailies say this was the main cause for
the foreign firms' withdrawal from the bidding.

the foreign bidders had been asked by the government not to charge
more than the equivalent of about 48 u.s. cents per cubic metre of
water consumed. at present, the inhabitants of caracas pay less
than five u.s. cents per cubic metre of water consumed.

the firms have complained that operating the aqueduct would bring
in a slow return of investment, given the present water
distribution problems and the government's condition that water
services be supplied to even the most isolated towns.

the venezuelan government's most successful project in its
privatisation programme, begun in 1991, was the sale of 40 percent
of the national telephone firm 'compania anonima nacional
telefonos de venezuela' (cantv) for over 1.8 billion dollars.

cantv was bought by the u.s. gte group for 800 million dollars
more than its original bidding price. (more/ips) (9

venezuela: foreign (2)

the transfer of assets from state-owned to private firms, both
national and foreign, has generated an income of about 2.3 billion
dollars for the country.

colmenares said water supply to caracas would soon increase by 2.5
thousand metres per second. but the problem is water distribution,
and not generation, since water supply in the capital is double
the per capita supply in paris or madrid.

over 30 percent of water supplied to caracas is lost and does not
reach the user. meanwhile, the rich pay an absurdly low price
while the poor have to buy water, at five percent more than its
real value, from private trucks. (end/ips/trd/eg/sfi/cir/92)