Banking Association of Venezuela president, Victor Vargas Irausquin calls the government's economic measures "opportune and necessary." Vargas Irausquin points out that the country's fiscal scenario suffered the first impact of the international financial crisis because of the fall in oil prices. Like other governments in the world, the banking director states, the national government has increased the level of public debt but has set up a mechanism to protect the expenditure budget and internal demand that will serve to soften the negative effects on the rest of the economy. The Venezuelan banking system, he says, is ready not only to cater to the State's financing demands but also to support production by offering robust credit to the national productive sector, just as it has been doing up till now.

The opposition-run Zulia State Legislature Council has announced that it has been discussing a call for a referendum on the decentralization reform law that has returned the administration of ports and airports and highways to the central government. Council president, Eliseo Fermin says the proposal will be lodged at the National Elections Council (CNE) as a petition for a consultative referendum and he reminds President Chavez that Maracaibo came into being because of its port and in 10 years of government not a penny was invested in the port, airport or the famous Maracaibo Bridge. Fermin asks the President: where is the deep water port that he said he was going to build?

After investing 3.6 million bolivares in the refurbishing of the Jose Maria Vargas hospital, the government has announced that the hospital will re-open next week. Hospital director, Francisco Hernandez says local communities will be able to exercise social comptrollership over the correct running of the hospital. The intensive therapy unit was completely demolished to make way for a new one and now has 14 beds. The director complains that hospitals in Venezuela went 40 years without any investment.

United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) finance committee president, Rodrigo Cabezas says party members occupying high up positions in the State apparatus should be the first to show example and rectify exaggerated salaries and wages. The party's parliamentary bloc, he adds, will support the proposal for an emolument law which has been shelved in Parliament for years. The government's austerity policy should not be just rhetoric, Cabezas contends, but put into practice. Cabezas adds that the government organization is not afraid of comptrollership but in the same breath brushes aside accusations of corruption against some PSUV leaders as "absurd."

Planning Minister, Jorge Giordano comments that the government will continue its social policy and investments making the agro-food, energy and construction sectors top priority. Those opposing the government, the Minister says in an interview with Efe news agency, cannot expect t