President Hugo Chavez on Friday attended a ceremony for the construction of an iron-steel plant that will be able to produce 1.55 billion tons of liquid iron annually by 2018, Xinhua reported.
The plant boasts an investment of 2.1 billion U.S. dollars and will be located the city of Piar in southwestern Venezuela.
Chavez said the new plant will be named after Jose Ignacio Abreu, a Brazilian soldier, politician, journalist and writer who fought side by side with Simon Bolivar for Venezuela and Colombia's independence.
With advanced Italian and German technologies, the plant will be able to produce special irons, said Mining Minister Rodolfo Sanz.
The on-going world economic crisis will not stop Venezuela's growth and the government will guarantee the development of the country's most important sectors, Chavez said.