New investment law: On 4 April President Morales promulgated a new investment promotion law. which has been hailed by the international community as well as local private sector lobbies like the Confederación de Empresarios Privados de Bolivia (CEPB), as key to shoring up investor confidence. The law sets out a general framework and mentions new incentives for investment, earmarking hydrocarbons, energy, infrastructure, industry and manufacturing as sectors of particular interest. However Planning Minister Viviana Caro Hinojosa has since told reporters that specific incentives will depend on each project. The new law does not cover arbitration, however, which will be addressed…

Hopes for swift approval of a new mining bill unveiled by President Evo Morales in March [RA-14-03] were premature. Late-March protests by mining cooperatives (cooperativistas) over congressional changes made to the bill resulted in two deaths and forced President Morales to replace his mining minister. The incident has raised questions about the fate of the legislation, considered key to boosting Bolivia’s stalled mining sector. The proposed legislation, the fruit of three years of talks between the government, the private sector, unions and cooperativistas, would replace the existing mining framework, approved in 1997 under the government led by Gonzalo Sánchez de…

With an eye on the October 2014 general elections, President Evo Morales has reached a minimum wage deal with the main umbrella union, Central Obrera Boliviana (COB). The COB was calling for a 12% general salary increase and a 20% increase in the national minimum wage. The government initially offered increases of 7% and 10% respectively. The final deal, announced on 21 April by President Morales, flanked by his economy and labour ministers, Luis Arce and Daniel Santalla, awards a 10% and 20% increase, bringing the national minimum wage to B$1,400 (US$203) a month, up from B$1,200 (US$174) in 2013.…