Bolivia, long one of the poorest and least developed Latin American countries, has made considerable progress toward the development of a market-oriented economy. Successes under President SANCHEZ DE LOZADA (1993-97) included the signing of a free trade agreement with Mexico and joining the Southern Cone Common Market (Mercosur), as well as the privatization of the state airline, telephone company, railroad, electric power company, and oil company. His successor, Hugo BANZER Suarez has tried to further improve the country's investment climate with an anticorruption campaign. Growth slowed in 1999, in part due to tight government budget policies, which limited needed appropriations for anti-poverty programs, and the fallout from the Asian financial crisis. In 2000, major civil disturbances in April, and again in September and October, held down overall growth to 2.5%.
Industry:
mining, smelting, petroleum, food and beverages, tobacco, handicrafts, clothing
Ethnicgroups:
Quechua 30%, Aymara 25%, mestizo (mixed white and Amerindian ancestry) 30%, white 15%
Yellow fever:
A yellow fever vaccination certificate is required from travellers coming from infected areas. Vaccination is recommended for incoming travellers from non-infected zones visiting risk areas such as the departments of Beni, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz, and the subtropical part of La Paz Department.
Malaria:
Malaria risk—predominantly due to P. vivax—exists throughout the year below 2500 m in the departments of Beni, Pando, Santa Cruz and Tarija, and in the provinces of Lacareja, Rurenabaque, and North and South Yungas in La Paz Department. Lower risk exists in Cocha-bamba and Chuquisaca. Falciparum malaria occurs in Beni and Pando, especially in the localities of Guayaramerín, Puerto Rico and Riberalta. P. falciparum resistant to chloroquine and sulfadoxine–pyrimethamine reported.
