Bolivia Case Study
four languages (English, Spanish, French and German), a wide range of tours and online reservations. In the lodging business, Camino Real Apart Hotel (ww.boliviaweb.com/ companies/caminoreal/) is one of the few among the 14 hotels with web addresses whose web site is available and offers online reservations.
country. There is no pre-paid card systems (like the one available for cellular services) that could be used to purchase items and services over the web. Low purchasing power means that Bolivian businesses also lack the resources to invest in the underlying software and hardware to enable them to advertise and sell products over the web.
The above cases are concrete illustrations of a nascent electronic trading marketplace in the Andean country. The growth of e-commerce in the country, however, is quite slow compared to other nations with similar socioeconomic indicators. As expressed by the Vice-Ministry of Industry and Internal Commerce, factors affecting the slow development of ecommerce in Bolivia include: low income, lack of awareness, limited and antiquated infrastructure, high cost of services, scarcity of local content, and an undeveloped digital legal framework.
Lack of awareness Many of Bolivia s some 30-40 000 businesses, the government and citizens are unfamiliar or suspicious of the concept of buying and selling goods and services over the Internet. It is rare to see outdoor Internet-related advertising or companies listing a web site in their publicity. Industry associations are trying to get the country more e-aware. The National Chamber of Commerce (Camara Nacional de Comercio, CNC) encompasses some 2 700 serviceoriented industries. Established in 1890, the CNC has been participating in the Free Trade Area of the Americas negotiating group on Joint Government-Private Sector Committee of Experts on Electronic Commerce (www.alca-ftaa.org/spcomm/ commec_e.asp). The CNC is also interested in becoming a certificate authority for Bolivia. It offers some services over its web site <www.megalink.com/camara> and p l a n s t o e x p a n d t h i s . 15 Its Oportundidades Comerciales has received around 400 e-mails from all over the world. Around 40 per cent were inquires about contacting Bolivian companies. A growing number of CNC members have e-mail and CNC estimates that it sends its circular letters to around 30 per cent of its members by e-mail. It has also sponsored seminars since 1996 about the Internet for its members.
Low income Bolivia s per capita income of US$ 1 077 makes it not only the fifth poorest country in the Americas region but also the poorest nation in South America.13 Some 30 per cent of the urban population and 80 per cent of rural dwellers live below the national poverty line. Many of Bolivia s citizens are focused on where their next meal is coming from rather than buying books from Amazon.com. Even if they were not, the majority of the nation s inhabitants cannot afford access to the communication facilities that enable online shopping. Yet another barrier is the low level of credit card ownership in the country. There are less than 200 000 credit cards in circulation (2.3 per cent of the population). 14 The number of cards and sales volume translate to less than 0.2 per cent of the Latin American region total. The country has just under 150 ATMs that accept VISA cards.
Established in 1931, the National Chamber of Industries (Camara Nacional de Industrias, CNI <www.bolivia-industry.com>) has some 1 000 industrial and manufacturing members. It estimates that
Furthermore, those with credit cards cannot use them to purchase products from web sites in Bolivia since the nation s credit card administrator has not enabled this facility in the
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