DECREE NO. 02 ON ECONOMIC PROTECTIVE MEASURES STATE OF ALARM TO ATTEND TO THE CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 SANITARY EMERGENCY - Mar 23 2020

DECREE NO. 02 ON ECONOMIC PROTECTIVE MEASURES STATE OF ALARM TO ATTEND TO THE CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 SANITARY EMERGENCY

Presidential Decree No. 4.168 was published in Official Gazette No. 6.521 Extraordinary of March 23, 2020. Said Decree issues Decree No. 02 in the frame of the State of Alarm to attend to the Coronavirus COVID-19 Sanitary Emergency (the “Decree”), which establishes the following Economic Protective Measures:

1. The Ministry of the Popular Power for Economy and Finance, through the Superintendence of Institutions of the Banking Sector (Superintendencia de las Instituciones del Sector Bancario – SUDEBAN), is ordered to implement a special regime of payment of the valid credits in the national public and private banking. The bases of said regime are as follows:

i. It will be applied to all types of credits granted by institutions of the banking sector, which are valid and fully or partially adjusted as of March 13, 2020.

ii. It will be extended to the payment of principal and interest, restructuring terms, and any other clause contained in the relevant credit agreements.

iii. Suspension of payments may be established, which will involve that demands for payment will be suspended, as well as the compliance with any other condition related to the suspended payments, for periods of up to one hundred and eighty (180) days.

iv. Special conditions, with a general character, may be established for specific categories of credits.

v. No default interest may be established, nor may total or partial immediate payment of the credit be demanded upon the end of the suspension.

vi. The credits agreed on the basis of commercial credit value units (unidades de valor de crédito comercial – UVCC) or on the basis of productive credit value units (unidades de valor de crédito productivo – UVCP) will maintain their mechanism of calculation of principal during the period of suspension, but they will be paid according to the new conditions.

The competent agencies and entities will proceed to coordinate and implement exceptional rules applicable to the conditions of the valid and totally or partially adjusted credits as of the date of publication of the Decree, when necessary, according to their competence.

2. The institutions of the banking sector must give priority to the assignment of credits to the strategic sectors the activity of which is essential for the preventive and palliative measures related to the State of Alarm decreed by the National Executive.

Public and private banks, under the supervision of SUDEBAN, and the relevant Governing Committee, will initially give priority to the agrifood sectors, including agribusiness and food production and distribution chains; pharmaceutical and hygiene product industrial sectors. The competent agencies may extend these sectors as per the national requirements in order to attend to the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences.

3. The Governing Committee of the Sole National Productive Portfolio is instructed to issue the applicable guidelines to access the credits of said portfolio, giving priority to the strategic sectors referred to in the Decree, assuring the expeditious processing of the same and the precedence of the processes of the small and medium-sized industry.

4. The Sectorial Vice-president of Economy is empowered to develop the necessary aspects for the implementation of the Decree, considering the characteristics of the COVID-19 world pandemic and the possible consequences of the same for national economy and, particularly, for the most vulnerable sectors of Venezuelan population.

5. The Sectorial Vice-president of Economy is entrusted with the execution and coordination for the most effective implementation of the Decree.

The Decree became effective upon publication of the same in the Official Gazette.

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