Bolivia+targets+land+for+nationalisation,+Business+Day

Business Day, 12 May 2006
=Bolivia targets land for nationalisation=


 * Flavia Krause-Jackson and Charles Penty**


 * Bloomberg**

VIENNA — Bolivian President Evo Morales said yesterday he would extend his nationalisation policy to agricultural estates.

He also ruled out any compensation for the oil companies whose assets the government took over on May 1.

Morales, attending a European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean summit in Vienna, renewed accusations that foreign firms, including Brazil’s state oil company Petroleo Brasileiro (Petrobras), acted illegally by avoiding taxes and smuggling oil.

He said the government did not owe anything to Petrobras or Madrid-based Repsol, the biggest investors in Bolivia’s oil industry.

“If they have recovered their investment and have also booked some earnings, there’s no need to indemnify them whatsoever,” Morales said before attending a meeting. “What we are looking for are partners, not bosses, that exploit our oil resources.”

Bolivia’s army took control on May 1 of the country’s oil and gas fields, and gave foreign energy companies operating in the country 180 days to agree to new contracts with the government. The asset seizures would extend beyond oil assets, Morales said yesterday. “Nationalisation will not stop to at oil resources, we’ll extend it to land,” he said.

Morales, who was due to meet Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero yesterday, called Spain a “strategic ally”. Repsol’s business activities might be probed, he said.

“The rule of law and trust are key issues not just for the Bolivian people, but also for investors,” Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik of Austria said in Vienna.

It was “up to the Bolivian government and president to explain” its nationalisation decisions, Plassnik said.


 * From: http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/world.aspx?ID=BD4A199241**

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