The European Investment Bank (EIB) is providing the Government of Bolivia with EUR 50 million to invest in the F21 highway in the country’s east-west corridor.

The EIB loan will help to finance the upgrading of 188 km of single carriageway between Uyuni and Tupiza in the Potosí region in the south of Bolivia. The new paved highway will essentially follow the same alignment as the existing unpaved road (currently four to six metres wide and 204 km long) and be seven metres wide including hard shoulders.

Known as the F21, the project forms part of Bolivia’s main road network and will connect with the F5 to Chile and F14 to Argentina. Upgrading the highway will have a positive impact in terms of integrating the country’s regions both internally and externally, improving access to neighbouring countries and diversifying Bolivia’s exports.

The project – the EIB’s first operation in Bolivia – will be cofinanced by CAF (the Development Bank of Latin America).

The EIB is granting this loan under the External Mandate of the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union, which enables it to support investments designed to foster the growth of the local private sector, develop economic and social infrastructure and mitigate the effects of climate change. This expired on 30 June 2014 and the new 2014-2020 mandate maintains the previous eligibility criteria.

Since the beginning of its financing activities in Latin America in 1993, the EIB has provided more than EUR 6 300 million for long-term investment projects in 13 countries in the region.