Eurasia Press & News
TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran and Venezuela are to loan Bolivia 225 million dollars to create a state cement company for the construction of roads and houses, the deputy minister for small and medium business, Eduardo Peinado, said Saturday.
The deal was made between Bolivian President Evo Morales, Venezuelan ambassador Julio Montes Prado and an Iranian business official Hojjatollah Soltani, he said.
Bolivia has formed strong ties with Iran and Venezuela under Morales.
The Bolivian leader has modeled socialist reforms in his country after those of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who enjoys strong commercial ties with Iran.
Peinado said the state company to be formed would use the credit to build two plants in the southern Andean cities of Oruru and Potosi that would produce a total 700,000 tons of cement per year.
One of Morales’s political opponents, Samuel Doria Medina, currently controls cement production in Bolivia through several private companies.
