“We have now finished the legal framework in order to invite foreign investment to come to Bolivia. This legal framework is mainly composed by three things, the Law of Investments, the Law of Public Companies, and the Law of Conciliation and Arbitrage. These three laws have been already finished. They have been also conciliated, elaborated through a consensus process with private actors. We now have the presence here of the Confederation of Private Companies of Bolivia and we salute, we welcome them because of joining this important event that gives us a sense that the private sector in Bolivia is committed to continue investing in Bolivia.”

“We have finished these three laws. In the case of the Law of Investment, it creates a particular incentive to be applied to those companies, to those investors that are interested to invest into strategic sectors, productive sectors, industrial sectors: energy, for example, oil, for example, gas, tourism, which is something that is important for us, I will repeat it. And this even could give us the advantage to define or approve concrete norms, let me say laws or even Supreme Decrees, to support the initiatives to invest in Bolivia. So we are open to have a bilateral dialogue with those who are interested in investing in Bolivia using this legal framework. That is important for you as investors.

“We also want to mention—the issue of nationalization has been mentioned before. … The issue of nationalization is not the same as expropriation, they are two different issues. Regarding nationalization, we have finished this process. The era of nationalization has already finished. … Now we are looking for, and we are working on agreements and associations with private investors and private operators, as you have heard in the case of oil, mining, and others.”

Rene Orellana, Bolivia’s Minister of Development Planning

Speech originally given in English. Appears on this video starting at 10:30. During “Investing in the New Bolivia” an event the Bolivian government co-organized with the Financial Times at the Four Seasons Hotel in Manhattan on October 26, 2015.