Bolivia and Peru will hold a bi-national event on September 13 and 14 titled “Promotion of the Port of Ilo as an Alternative for Bolivian Foreign Trade,” to which all sectors involved in exports and imports are invited, the Ministry said. of Bolivian Foreign Affairs. announced today.
With this event, the Bolivian and Peruvian Foreign Ministries aim to promote the port terminal as another option for international freight traffic.
The Foreign Ministry of Bolivia will host the meeting in the city of La Paz, while the Chamber of Exports of Santa Cruz will host another meeting in the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra.
On Saturday, Bolivian Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade, Benjamín Blanco, told Xinhua that the port of Ilo is an important alternative to promote Bolivian foreign trade after the Chilean ports.
He also considered it essential to diversify port alternatives to boost Bolivia’s foreign trade with logistics and cost relief, which he said will improve the competitiveness of Bolivian businessmen with other countries.
According to a report published in April by the Bolivian-owned Port Services Administration (ASP-B), Bolivian cargo traffic at the Peruvian ports of Ilo and Matarani recorded record growth in the first half of this year compared to the same period last year. 2021. .
WAR OF THE PACIFIC (1879 – 1883)
The war, also called the Saltpeter War, which saw Bolivia lose its access to the sea, was sparked by a dispute between Bolivia, Chile and Peru over control of nitrate deposits near the Pacific coast.
In the 1870s Chile faced an economic crisis as the prices of its main exports, wheat and copper, fell.
As other exports declined, Chile became increasingly dependent on the growth of nitrate mining in the Atacama Desert. Nitrate production doubled between 1865 and 1875.
The area of nitrate deposits at that time straddled the borders of Chile, Peru, and Bolivia, including the Bolivian Pacific province of Antofagasta and the Peruvian province of Tarapaca.
Most of the nitrate deposits lay in Bolivian and Peruvian territory, but British and/or Chilean nationals owned the major nitrate mining companies operating in these areas.
Fighting over Chilean claims to Bolivian coastal territory in the Atacama Desert, the war ended in a Chilean victory, which gave the country a significant amount of resource-rich territory from Peru and Bolivia.
