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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 7, 1963)
14 A WEDNESDAY. AUGUST . 1963 MbUtOHU MAIL 1 mount., MbUrOHU, OntuOB f3 Industrial Complex To Be Built Soon in Venezuelan Wilderness By JAMES H. WHELAN Uaiiid Pratt International Santo Tome de Guayana, Venezuela-WPD-You have just entered a world of dreams. There is no Santo Tome de Guayana, Venezuela. There is only a dream by that name. It u a dream born on the windswept badlands of south eastern Venezuela beside the swift-rushing Rio Caroni and beclouded by throat-parching dust of a hill the Indians call "La Parida." Here, if the dream comes true, will rise one of the world's great industrial com plexes and with it will grow a flourishing, modern city pre-planned down to the last bus stop. This is an idle dream only to those who would have thought that Brasilia, the new capital of Brazil hewn from Amazon jungle, and the power-producing dam network of the Tennessee Valley Author ity (TV A) WCTe idle dreams The reformation of this dusty, remote, Wild West-type desert wasteland into a huge steel, aluminum, power and wood products complex is tantamount to a rebirth of Venezuela. Here, at the junction of the muddy Orinoco River and the cascading Caroni, is one of the world's Tichest and vir tually untapped basins of nat ural resources. The plan to develop them in the next 15 years is backed by a bank roll of $500 million to start. Experts, including Vene zuelans and some of the finest minds from Harvard and Mas sachusetts Institute of Tech nology (MIT), have ponderous ly labored over every aspect of this mighty development project for more than two years. Now the wheels that will turn the dream into reality are beginning to turn. Remote Guayana state, en compassing one-fourth of the land area of Venezuela is now largely underdeveloped and its population numbers only 213,000 persons. But the eco nomic potential is seemingly boundless. For Development Ten per cent of Venezuela's total national investment for the next -five years has been earmarked for the develop ment of Guayana, which pos- Mercedes Douglas Marries Attorney Beverly Hills, Calif.-fUPJ)- The former wife of Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas and Washington, D.C., attorney Robert Eichholz were honeymooning today en route to the bride's Washington ' state ranch. . The former Mercedes Hes ter Douglas and Eichholz were married here Tuesday -the day after Douglas, 64. maTried the former Joan Carol Martin, 23, at Buffalo, N.Y. Douglas and Mrs. Eichholz, 48, were divorced one week ago. The weddings this week were the third for each. sesses a fantastic assortment of natural resources. -In this area, there are known deposits totaling 1, 300,000 (M) tons of proven deposits of high-grade iron ore. Mining operations which began in 1954 have already converted Venezuela into one of the free world's leading suppliers of iron ore. -Just one year ago, Presi dent R o m u I o Betancourt tapped an electric open hearth furnace at a $362 million government-owned mill on the shores of the Caroni, incor porating Venezuela into the family of steel-producing na tions. The mill now has a ca pacity of 750,000 tons a year and is fully-integrated: mean ing it can handle all the proc esses starting with iron ore and ending with finished steel products. -The Caroni has the high est electric power potential of almost any river in the world: an estimated 10 mil lion kilowatts, due to a drop of nearly seven hundred feet (240 meters) as it rushes to join the Orinoco. One $45 million dam has already been finished, providing 350,000 kilowatts. A contract was signed earlier this year far the financing of the first phase of the $133 million Great Guri dam, which when completely finished will be 338 feet high and have a ca pacity of 6 million kilowatts. Two more hydroelectric proj ects are on the drawing boards. Brings Gat -Pipelines already bring gas and oil to the area from the easily-accessible oil fields of eastern Venezuela, which boast proven reserves of 2.2 billion barrels of oil. The Orinoco has been dredged to a depth of 33 feet the entire 160 miles from Santo Tome de Guayana to the Atlantic. Besides iron ore, the area boasts other minerals, includ ing manganese, nickel, chrome, industrial diamonds, gold and coal (30 million tons of known reserves). -The area to the south abounds in great rain forests of the Amazon territory, promising a flourishing lum ber Industry. The fishing in dustry is only beginning to develop. -The area,' at the conflu ence ot two great rivers. flanked In the distance by rolling hills, provides a dra matic location for the deveh opmcnt of a new cily. Though only six degrees north of the equator, the site of the new city is fanned by almost constant breezes which are even expected to blow away the smoke from industrial chimneys. -Most of the land in the area belongs to the govern ment corporation developing this area, meaning the devel opment can be preplanned and controlled. The combina tion of abundant natural re sources, cheap and plentiful hydroelectric power, good transportation to markets, nat ural beauty and the fact that It is a virgin territory whose growth can be guided - make the Guayana region unique among the world's remaining lands of opportunity. Three years ago, the gov ernment corporation charged with developing this area signed a contract with the Joint Center for Urban Studies of the MIT and Har vard. Now, after two years of intensive studies involving ro tating staffs of experts in al most every field imaginable, the Center has released care fully guarded predictions for the area. Barring war or a commu nist takeover in Venezuela, they see the Guayana region as the answer to the problems of a country which grew rich on oil. Venezuela is the free world's No. 1 oil supplier but the petroleum - centered pros perity was limited almost en tirely to the northern coastal areas. Apart from that, while Venezuela has oil reserves to last at least another half cen tury (16.8 billion barrels), the growth of the petroleum in dustry cannot keep pace with the population explosion -around 3.5 per cent per year, one of the highest rates in the world. Already, because of the new steel mill, the Guayana region has witnessed its own popula tion explosion: the site of the new city had a population of 4,000 in 1940. By 1950, that had doubled. By 1960, it had soared to 55,000. At this point, the planners have stepped In and are try ing to plan for an orderly fu ture, a clean and modern city feeding on a coordinated in dustrial complex nearby and drawing on the resources of the region. By 1966, they ex pect the city to have a popu lation of 115,000; by 1975, 420,000; by the 1980's, 680,000 and by 2,000, more than one million. The government is count ing on private capital to do most of the job of developing the industry of the area - and is welcoming private invest ment - but the government's Guayana Development Corp oration (CVG), with $500 mil- linn in capital available - will be the guiding hand. Invaiimant Naaded In the first phase of the city's develop m e n t (1963 1966), an Investment of $415 million will be needed. The second stage, 1967-1975, Will require $l,38R,000,00O. . By 1975, the Guayana re gion is expected to be pro ducing one fifth of Venezu ela's gross national product, and one fifth of all its exports - ambitious goals considering the giant oil industry will still be operating at peak levels elsewhere in Venezuela. More than 100 factories - ranging from steel and alu minum plants to pulp mills - are expected to provide jobs for 85,000 persons by 1975. Another 60,000 are expected to be working in other fields mining, trade, transportation and services. Keep in mind that all ot this will be taking place in an Heard the word? We're lliird1, in sales. Third! 1 Oil, you said that laat year. . . I IFG5-69 Tali Is getting lo be a refular thing wllh at. But what ran you eiport, with ctra no likeable? (If you're thinking. "Who eareaT". you ought to see rour Fontiar dealer. He t ares.) Pftnf Jop nnfl Tomnlef MaU LLMnwIMkMTHal twnnHav M. m tilllUlt I1IU XCIIIJCSli l YOU AUTHOINZtl P0NTIAC DEALER rot A WIDt CHOICE OF WIOE.tMCKS AND GOOD USID CARS. TOO. DEAN & TAYLOR PONTIAC CO., Inc. 2177 SOUTH PACIFIC HIGHWAY MEDFORD, OREGON area all but barren a few years ago and which still -except for the steel mill and big open pit iron ore oper ations 90 miles away - re sembles a Wild West fron tier town. The development of the city itself has been the heart of all the planning, planning aimed at creating a city at tractive enough to attract top engineers, professionals, teachers. To get people to a wilderness anywhere is hard enough. To do it in Latin America, where the big cities, and especially the capital cities, exercise an almost mys tic magnetism, is a formidable job. Penetrating Reports To know the people already here and their needs as inti mately as possible, Lisa Red field Peattie of Chicago, a University of Chicago anthro pologist, moved 16 months ago into a shantytown on the month, the metropolitan area will be finished by the end of outskirts. Mrs. Peattie remain- i could develop into a massive I next vear slum. Fully half of the 8,650 Contracts have already ed there with her four chil dren even after her husband was killed in an automobile accident here last December. Her penetrating reports, and those of others, are designed to keep the human factor paramount in the welter of statistics. Housing is getting number one priority in the planning. With 800 persons arriving per houses already built are either shacks or sub-standard. To avoid the spread of this, authorities have- set up re ceiving areas for new arrivals. Easy credit terms are offered to anyone willing to work, and as fast as possible they are being moved into 7,000 new houses already under construction and all of which been signed - some with U.S. firms - for the financing of the 70,000 houses that will be needed by 1975. Those are : the broad out lines of a dream which is al ready taking shape. Only time will tell whether man is equal io nis vision ot me iuiure oi i Dept. M Guayana, Venezuela's "El'S . ,. . , . Dorado - P. 0. 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