Teach us how to fish
Rene Gonzalo Orellana, left, Bolivian minister of development planning, speaks with Choi Kyung-hwan, deputy prime minister, at a meeting on the sidelines of the Inter-American Development Bank board of governors meeting in BEXCO, Busan, Saturday. / Yonhap
Exploitation woes setback to lithium partnership
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Developing countries endowed with rich natural resources harbor common suspicions when they team up with foreign investors to industrialize their resources. They fear the investors’ abusive use of their resources while making no progress in the lives of the public.
In a bid to avoid historical mistakes they made hundreds of years ago, Bolivia attached a string to foreign investors seeking to cooperate in the mining of its lithium and requested interested investors to come up with additional measures that can help the nation build its infrastructure.
Rene Gonzalo Orellana, minister of development planning of Bolivia, said on March 25 that his government stood firm on this position when a Japanese delegation visited La Paz years ago to seek lithium partnerships.
“We told them to set up a factory to produce Toyoda cars in Bolivia if they want to use our lithium,” he told Korean reporters during a work lunch at Lotte Hotel.
“We did that because we’re not going to make the same mistakes we made hundreds of years ago.”
The Bolivian official, who visited Korea for the Inter-American Development Bank board of governors meeting in Busan, was referring to foreign exploitation of its natural resources in the past.
He said his government would not allow foreign investors to take advantage of resources, while making no progress in its infrastructure, again. “The Japanese delegation left as we stuck to our position,” Orellana said.
The Bolivian official noted that mining is one of the strategic industries designated by his government and it is willing to work with foreign partners if they live up to their commitments to make progress in Bolivia’s endeavor to build infrastructure for development.
His remarks came as global demand for lithium has soared in recent years.
It is used in the production of mobile phones, electronic devices and laptops. It is also a critical element needed to manufacture such environmentally-friendly vehicles as electricity or hydro cars.
The world’s largest salt flat Salar de Uyuni, the southwest part of Bolivia, contains reportedly 50 to 70 percent of world’s lithium reserves.
Combined with high global demand for lithium, Bolivia’s endowment with the resource has sparked global competition for partnerships with the Latin American country.
Earlier, the Bolivian government announced its plan to industrialize the mines. But it still has no technology that can make it work.
Korea, China, Japan and France are keen to forge partnerships with Bolivia to industrialize lithium.
Minister Orellana said Korea, which has become a middle-income country from the ashes of the Korean War (1950-53) during a relatively short time period, is a model that Bolivia wants to emulate to achieve economic growth.
“We hope that Korea can help the Bolivian economy grow with technical assistance, particularly in the areas of mining and agriculture,” he said.
Kim Eun-mi, a professor of international development at Ewha Women’s University in Seoul, said the foreign exploitation fear is a common suspicion among developing countries that have rich natural resources.
“As a country that experienced extreme poverty after the war and then later became a donor, I think Korea can play a unique role to help countries like Bolivia,” she said. “We can help them rise on their own feet by providing them with technical assistance where we have unrivaled strength, for example in education.”
Korea has provided over $500 million of aid to Bolivia since 1991 and sent a number of experts and aid workers there for technical assistance.
More than 300 Bolivian government officials have received training in Korea as part of a technical assistance program.