Arce approaches private companies to take on obligations and give deadlines for solutions

Poor economic indicators and social tensions have led President Luis Arce to turn his attention to the business community. This has meant three meetings with private businessmen in one week, with the president making promises and setting deadlines for their fulfillment.

He met businessmen from across the country on Wednesday and Friday. If at the first meeting he proposed to set up a currency allocation committee, he withdrew the proposal on Friday. This time, it signed 17 agreements with private parties and set a one-month deadline to monitor compliance.

The third meeting was on agriculture. Although there was no agreement on immediate approval of biotechnology, they agreed to take 10 days to review research on the subject.

The last meeting was held yesterday in the capital, Santa Cruz, with representatives of the National Agricultural Confederation (Confeagro) and the Eastern Agricultural Chamber (CAO). The head of state reviewed the different meetings he had held and said that, in accordance with the agreement reached with the Bolivian Confederation of Private Entrepreneurs (CEPB) within the National Economic Dialogue, he had taken on the task of forming a sectoral cabinet to “address some sectoral demands in a more direct and concrete way.”

“Today we are facing a situation where we have to improve the external sector of the economy, increase exports, replace imports, create foreign exchange flows and unlock the credit of the Plurinational Legislative Assembly,” he said. “If they acted in time today, we would not have these problems.

He highlighted the formation of the Agricultural Cabinet, which aims to boost support for the agricultural sector, not just in Santa Cruz. Businessmen from Cochabamba and other provinces are also involved. “We are confident that, with the progress achieved today, we will understand that we must increase exports, we must increase the productivity of our land to be able to compete with several other neighbours and learn from the experiences of other countries. Other countries have made faster progress in this regard. We cannot leave our agricultural sector behind and the national government has given them the support they need, listening to them and working to achieve their goals,” Arce said.

Meetings with the agricultural sector revolved around three axes: biotechnology, legal security (conquest) and diesel supply.

Regarding biotechnology, agriculture hopes to finally approve two new biotechnological activities, but this subject has been postponed for 10 days and is conditional on a technological study that must be presented on August 27 in La Paz.

The Minister of the Presidency, Maria Neira Prada, was in charge of reporting on the conclusions of the meeting.

“President Luis Arce gave a welcome speech. Then, CAO President José Luis Fallah raised three fundamental issues to discuss with the national government in this conference. Biotechnology, legal security and fuel,” said Prada.

As detailed, the Association of Oilseeds and Wheat Producers (Anapo) together with representatives of the Gabriel Rene Moreno Autonomous University were responsible for explaining the need for its use.

Prada insisted that there was agreement that “we must increase production and improve the productivity of the land to guarantee food supply to Bolivian families and to promote agricultural exports to generate foreign exchange for our country.” Participants valued Bolivia’s accession to the Southern Common Market and discussed issues related to the progress of the Agricultural Biotechnology Committee and the creation of an international network on biosafety of products produced by modern biotechnology within the framework of the Southern Common Market.

In this context, it was decided to advance joint work on addressing regulatory and technical aspects and to provide a report on the results achieved within a maximum of ten days.

“The coordination of this meeting will be the responsibility of the Minister of the Presidency and the President of the CAO, and the next meeting is scheduled for August 27, 2024 in La Paz.

The issue of land encroachment was discussed at this time, which, according to Prada, created a great deal of legal uncertainty.

“Following the corresponding reports on the actions taken against the violations, the agricultural sector stated that, unfortunately, despite the initiation of proceedings, no judgment has yet been rendered and many people arrested red-handed by the Bolivian police for the crimes mentioned have been judicially released,” the minister said.

In view of this situation, it was agreed to set up a committee to carry out the corresponding expulsions, which has been accepted and will be headed by the Ministry.

The two sides also reached an agreement committing to work towards finding a structural solution to address encroachment in the Guarajos Forest Reserve.

Regarding the signing of land titles, the government reported that under this administration, significant progress has been made in land titles and sanitation nationwide, increasing from 86% to 93%, and reaching 95% in Santa Cruz. Following fundamental progress in property titles in small communities.

Representatives of the agricultural sector explained the drama they are experiencing, fundamentally related to diesel and the need to guarantee its supply so that production is not affected.

The executive explained the structural problems related to fuel, the lack of exploration in the past, the current fuel prices and the high cost of subsidies. Likewise, the measures taken to address these problems in terms of exploration and development were explained as import substitution, biodiesel production, a plant in Santa Cruz and another in El Alto (HBO plant), promotion of biodiesel production DS 5197 was approved, establishing a tax incentive program for the private sector for zero-duty capital goods imports.

Regarding the direct import of liquid fuels by private companies, the government confirmed that the current regulations allow this route and agreed to continue to promote the simplification of direct import procedures for own use. To this end, it was decided that representatives of CAO and Confeagro will participate in the meeting of heads of the Ministry of Hydrocarbons on August 19.

While the President met with businessmen, the country’s traffic threat will re-emerge if diesel fails to reach the country regularly.