Nationalisation in Bolivia

Thursday 1st of May, Evo Morales the bolivian president annouced that the government was to control the majority of the share in 3 oil company with foreign capital. The companies are owned originaly by BP(Chaco), Shell (Transredes) and CLHB owned partly by a german and peruvian company. The president also annouced that they tried to buy 51% of the share but they couldn´t reach some kind of agreement. This process started in May 2006, the government also bought the majority share in an Spanish oil company called Repsol. The president said during a speach in the capital La Paz that he wanted to have associate not masters. Since he is in power of the country, Evo Morales has decided to take back all the oil company from the privat sector that the previous liberal president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada(1993-97) has privatised. In the same speach, he said that the telecommunication company ENTEL, which was under Italian control will be public and in control of the Bolivian hand. All this announcement in the country has created tension and 4 regions including Santa Cruz, Pando, Beni and Tarija wants autonomy which also is 65% of the GDP of the country. The foreign minister of Bolivia said that this was some act of conspiration from rich regions which are against the government of Evo Morales. The future of this country which have a strong state run government is particulary uncertain. It is harder for foreign business to invest in this countries. Therefore, even if the return in investment is high the country is too risky for foreign company to invest, the Bolivian people will miss the know-how of Foreign firms in those area and the support of Western countries.