Chinese cranes to lift Venezuelans' living standard: president

Venezuela will acquire 300 new Chinese-made electric cranes to help a government program designed to rehabilitate and renovate housing in low-income neighborhoods, President Nicolas Maduro has said.

During his weekly broadcast late Tuesday, Maduro said he authorized the purchase through an existing China-Venezuela fund.

"They will be here in 60 days; that is the concrete and correct investment of the nation's dollars," he said.

The program has cost more than 6.1 billion U.S. dollars so far this year to help upgrade some of Venezuela's poorer sectors.

In addition, China has also been cooperating with the South American country in building new homes for people in need.

In late 2010, torrential rains left more than 30,000 Venezuelan families homeless, prompting Venezuela's late president Hugo Chavez to launch the Great Housing Mission in 2011, a program that aims to build 3 million homes by 2019.

The Venezuelan government has invested more than 73 billion dollars and built 701,250 homes in the first four years since the program was launched, Maduro said.

According to Venezuelan Housing Minister Ricardo Molina, Chinese companies have helped build over 14,000 homes in the country in the last three years and 15,000 more are now under construction. Endi