Bolívar has ambitious plans to promote its tourism industry on the horizon.

Bolívar is Venezuela’s largest state and one committed to harnessing its natural resources to industrial productivity and to promoting tourism. The state provides 70% of the nation’s electricity, largely in the form of hydroelectric power. It also possesses oil reserves, aluminum, gold and diamond
deposits.
The state capital Bolívar, on the Orinoco, is a Spanish colonial city that was once the country’s provisional capital. Move further inland and you will discover the most extraordinary region in the country. The Canaima National Park, home to the Angel Falls, the world’s highest continuous waterfall, with an 807-meter drop. South of this is one of the oldest geological regions in the world, the Gran Sabana, with its tabletop mountains, sweeping grasslands, underlying forests and dizzying waterfalls.

One of the region’s fundamental infrastructure developments to date is a $400 million hydroelectricity project that connects Bolívar to northern Brazil. In its quest for extra revenue, the government has permitted power lines to pass through the fragile natural reserves of Bolívar on pylons that are a permanent eyesore on the vast virgin plains of the Gran Sabana. The project has highlighted concern over the region’s three new tax-free development zones and there have been repeated calls for the state to give clear guidelines to private investors and to officials operating the Intergovernmental Decentralization Fund (IDF). The IDF is largely for the creation of a commercial chain of production in the region.

ANTONIO ROJAS SUÁREZ Governor of the state of Bolívar

As the governor of the state of Bolívar, Antonio Rojas Suárez explains, “for a long time we have had basic industries such as iron, steel, aluminum and gold but have not valued these materials other than for export. The economic revolution encourages each township to develop a production chain through to the end product. For example, gold mining has always been the core industry of Callao. Now we want to develop the local economy to manufacture and sell gold jewelry. The same applies to the diamond market and the state’s wealth of semi-precious stones. What we require is modern technological support and our tax free zones are open to foreign investors who can provide it.”

Bolívar’s largest development is the $400 million hydroelectric project to Brazil

With its program of public works Bolívar is building links to the more remote parts of the region.

Money has been allocated for the development of schools, sports facilities and public works in Caroni. Other towns in the region have also received IDF funding for small-scale infrastructure projects. The opening of a commercial bank in Bolívar offers micro-credits to small-scale local service and production companies. Funding is also filtering through to the more remote regions in the form of new tractors, school buses and education equipment.

Mr. Rojas recently took a helicopter trip to the remote centers of Bolívar to review the work of 3,000 of his state employees and to promote the message that tourism is the essential industry of the future. “We have a rich variety of social, historic, cultural, adventure and eco-tourism. Around 300,000 tourists visited the region from all parts of the world last year,” says Mr. Rojas. “Tourism is going to generate employment in the long term. But we need to create a conscience from school level up. We need to create a hotel infrastructure. We need to promote the most important aspects of our historic towns. We must prepare tourist routes, improve air services and landing strips. We need to ensure a high level of security. All of this can be developed by small and mid-scale companies within the state, run by our own people.”