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Chavez buys a million laptops from Portugal(EFE Ingles Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Lisbon, Sep 27 (EFE).- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Saturday signed an agreement to buy a million laptop computers from Portugal during a visit to the Iberian nation. Chavez, who praised his country's relations with Portugal and its prime minister, Jose Socrates, presided over the signing of 10 bilateral agreements by which Lisbon will also sell 50,000 prefabricated houses to Venezuela and the two nations will develop joint electricity and natural-gas projects. The leftist Venezuelan president wound up Saturday, with a 24-hour stopover in Lisbon, the tour that has taken him to China, Russia and France, which he qualified as an effort by his country to establish "a new network of relationships." Among the 10 accords signed Saturday in Lisbon were agreements with the Portuguese company LENA to sell 50,000 prefabricated multi-family dwellings, 15,000 of them to be produced in Portugal and the other 35,000 in Venezuela by means of a project that includes training and technology transferral. Other Portuguese companies such as Energias de Portugal (EDP) and EFACEC will enter into pacts with Venezuelan state institutions and companies, among them energy giant PDVSA, to develop and restore electrical systems and power lines and to produce natural gas. The biggest deal agreed upon was the sale of a million Magallanes computers, a model designed for students in developing nations, which Portugal will deliver to Caracas in various phases beginning in December 2008. Half of the order will be produced by the Portuguese company that assembles the laptops with Asian components and low-cost processors made by the U.S. multinational Intel, while the other half will be produced in Venezuela once an assembly plant is ready. EFE arm-ecs/cd Copyright ? 2008 EFE News Services (U.S.) Inc. |