New Delhi, March 10 -- Venezuelan lawmakers on Monday began debating a bill proposed by acting President Delcy Rodriguez to regulate the country's mining industry and create conditions to attract crucial foreign investment.

The bill aims to generate confidence among foreign investors, many of whom lost assets through expropriations decades ago, and draw much-needed capital to boost the country's industry. It partially mirrors a recently approved oil-industry reform that opened the door to privatization, doing away with a tenet of the self-proclaimed socialist movement that has ruled the country for more than two decades.

It is the latest legislative action that Rodriguez has proposed since coming under pressure from the Trump administra...