The Bolivian Ambassador to the United States was part of a panel that praised the rise of capitalization in the formerly state-controlled South American nation yesterday afternoon in Cook Auditorium.
Bolivia "was forgotten, dead in the heart of South America," before capitalism, Ambassador Alvaro Cossio said.
Also present on the panel were Charles White, a Tuck School of Business graduate and Washington, D.C. attorney, and Shuman Moore, an executive with Constellation Power, Inc. Constellation Power controls more than 50 percent of Bolivia's electricity.
About 100 Tuck students and professors endured constant microphone difficulty to attend the panel.
Cossio -- introduced as the "mastermind" behind Brazilian capitalization by moderator Tuck Professor Joe Massey -- said the Bolivian government instituted reforms that applied capitalization to the six largest economic industries in 1993.
White called the reforms an "extraordinary act of political courage."
"This is cutting edge stuff," he said. "An economic renaissance."
Cossio said capitalization has saved Bolivia from the stunted economic growth experienced in the years of inefficient state control.
With expanding economic and social activities, money no longer disappears from the state treasury, Cossio said. More than 60 percent of the private companies investing in Bolivia's large economic sectors come from foreign markets, he said.
