Amazon, Tesla, Oracle to reveal Bolivia investments next month as country ends socialist era

Bolivia’s President Rodrigo Paz announced Tuesday that several large American technology firms plan to reveal investment plans in the country soon.

Speaking at a press conference held online, Paz said company representatives from Tesla, Amazon and Oracle will travel to Bolivia in January to share details about their technology investments. The plans include building data centers in El Alto and Cochabamba, he said.

Foreign Minister Fernando Aramayo told the Wall Street Journal that his government was looking for financial help from the Trump administration and wants to open the country’s large lithium reserves to outside investors.

Aramayo said he had also talked about the possibility of a currency swap with US officials during a trip to Washington in December.

Last week, Bolivia’s government rolled out a sweeping emergency decree that ended two decades of fuel subsidies and also laid out a plan to fix public finances and bring in foreign investment.

The decree did not give any details on lithium or a currency swap agreement with the United States.

A government spokesman told Reuters that lithium reserves were not a topic of discussion with the United States.

“The currency swap is part of the topics related to US support for the economic stabilization process, but the agenda also includes US investment in different sectors. Lithium was not discussed at all,” the spokesperson said.

Satellite internet gets green light

In the press conference attended by Bloomberg, Paz also mentioned that Bolivia has given permission to OneWeb, SpaceX’s Starlink and Amazon’s Leo to do business in the country. These companies will use satellites that orbit close to Earth to provide better internet service.

Foreign businesses must get approval to work in Bolivia. The announcement did not specify whether Tesla, Amazon and Oracle have received such approval. The previous administration, led by President Luis Arce and his left-wing government, had turned down a request from Starlink to operate there.

These potential investments would represent a big change for Bolivia, which spent nearly 20 years under socialist leadership that avoided American businesses and built ties with China and Russia instead. Paz, who holds moderate views, took office in November and has shown support for working with the United States.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last week that “government officials are currently in Bolivia seeking to facilitate investments that will foster prosperity for both our nations.”

Scholarship program for young Bolivians

Paz said IBM, Google, Amazon Web Services, Oracle and the Project Management Institute will provide 10,000 scholarships to young people in Bolivia for technology training next year. The best students will get to tour SpaceX locations in Texas and Florida.

The US has also praised Bolivia’s recent economic changes, especially ending a fuel subsidy that kept gas and diesel prices low for almost 20 years.  Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement that “we applaud President Paz’s historic efforts to open Bolivia to the world by committing to meaningful reforms to attract international investment”.

“This is the path forward, not one of stagnation, blockades or dynamite,” Paz said about protests against his government’s move to end fuel subsidies.