Evo Morales highlights Turkey's interest in investing in Bolivian lithium
Bolivian President Evo Morales highlighted on Wednesday the interest of Turkey in making investments in Bolivia's lithium industry, a country that claims to have the world's largest reserves of that mineral.
The Bolivian leader referred to the matter in a statement to the media in La Paz in which he reported on his recent trips to the United Arab Emirates and Turkey.
Morales highlighted the meeting he had with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in which they talked in Ankara about issues such as the commitment they made to increase trade between the two countries to 500 million dollars.
"But the most important thing in this meeting that we had is mainly (the) investments in the lithium issue and investments in infrastructure issues," the Bolivian president stressed briefly.
The interest of Turkey for the Bolivian lithium is added to the one that India recently manifested for one of the main industrial commitments of the Morales government, which claims to have guaranteed at least 4,500 million dollars in investments, largely due to agreements with a Chinese company and another German.
According to the president, before the Bolivian governments "were going to ask, now they offer us to invest, now they offer us to transfer technology".
He also highlighted Erdogan's commitment that he will visit Bolivia in November or December next with a business delegation.
The president reiterated that work is underway for the Turkish Airlines airline to start operating in the Bolivian city of Santa Cruz as of the first quarter of 2020.
He also thanked the offerings of donations from the Turkish Government for the health area and 18 quinoa separating machines that will benefit producers from the Bolivian highlands.
Morales's was the first visit of a Bolivian president to Turkey.
Both countries established diplomatic relations in 1999 and in 2018 the Turkish Embassy in La Paz was opened, which prompted the bilateral agenda between the two nations, according to Bolivian authorities.
The Bolivian Executive has announced the upcoming opening of an embassy in Turkey.
The governments of both countries maintain coincidences on issues such as the crisis in Venezuela, in which they support President Nicolás Maduro against the opposition Juan Guaidó, who proclaimed himself interim president of the Caribbean country to hold elections.
Before visiting Turkey, Morales was in Dubai, where he participated in an investor conference.
According to the president, there they invited him to participate in the Expo Dubai 2020, for which he instructed his ministers to organize a committee between the State and the private sector.
