VENEZUELA GETS 300 MLN DLRS CREDIT FOR ALUMINUM
  Venezuela has obtained more than 300 mln
  dlrs in financing for industrial projects and increased its
  lines of credit for import financing, finance minister Manuel
  Azpurua said.
      'We can say that we are achieving the recuperation of
  credit, but that cannot be done overnight,' Azpurua said in a
  television interview.
      He said a credit agreement for 100 mln marks will be signed
  this week with the German state bank Kreditanstalt fur
  Wiederaufbau (KFW), to finance an expansion of the state
  aluminum company Venalum.
      The credit will be divided into two separate agreements,
  one for 85 mln marks with an interest rate of 6.13 pct, and
  another for 15 mln marks, at 6.20 pct.
      Azpurua said financing has also been obtained for expansion
  of Alcasa, another state aluminum company, and for projects in
  the state steel and petrochemical industries.
      Yesterday, he said Venezuela obtained two new credits of
  5.0 mln dlrs each for export financing, one from Credit du Nord
  of France and the other from Britain's Midland Bank.
      The Venezuelan government has been criticised at home for
  failing to obtain new credits, despite its insistence on
  repaying foreign debt according to the terms of a rescheduling
  accord reached last February.
      Azpurua recently visited Tokyo hoping to acquire new
  credits for industrial expansions but clinched no agreements.
  Japanese officials refused to allow a new issue of Venezuelan
  bonds until the country regains its 'Triple A' credit rating.
  

