China's contribution "essential" to Venezuelan social program: official

China's contribution has been "essential" to a Venezuelan social program to renovate dilapidated buildings and public spaces in impoverished districts, an official said Monday.

Chinese-supplied heavy machinery has been key to implementing the program, Manuel Quevedo, head of the government's Barrio Nuevo, Barrio Tricolor (New Neighborhood) program, told the state-run Venezuelan television network VTV.

Beijing has supplied Venezuela with 2,400 shipping containers of construction materials and equipment, including 225 electric scaffolds.Another 300 sets of cargo trucks, cement mixers, cisterns and backhoe loaders, will arrive in coming weeks.

This has helped boost the pace of work at some 200 underprivileged neighborhoods around the country to improve living standards for more than 2 million residents, said Quevedo.

"This year we have doubled the investment" in the program, for which President Nicolas Maduro has recently approved more than 2.5 billion U.S. dollars, said Quevedo.

And, thanks to China, "we also have more than 60 percent of the materials we need to guarantee the (renovation) work at more than 60,000 homes and 2,000 buildings. The rest will soon arrive," he added.

The social program was launched in 2009 by then president Hugo Chavez, who also spearheaded a foreign policy marked by stronger ties with China. Endi