PARAGUAY - PARANA WATERWAY: A REAL SOLUTION FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MARITIME, FLUVIAL, LAKE AND MERCHANT MARINE INTERESTS OF BOLIVIA THROUGH FOREIGN COMMERCE
The Paraguay-Parana Waterway is one of the solutions to affirm the participation of the Bolivian State in the shipping-merchant activity through foreign trade, strengthening the links and integration with neighboring countries. The motivation for the use of the Waterway has been a constant for the different factors of international trade such as shipping agencies, shipping lines, etc., always with the purpose of improving the competitiveness of this alternative activity for the exit and entry of goods through this natural channel to the Atlantic Ocean, which has been recognized by the international community.
It is relevant to describe through this publication, the importance that the Paraguay-Parana Waterway represents as a feasible alternative for the Bolivian foreign trade, since the Bolivian port system has three ports in the process of development and effective operation on the Tamengo Canal: Puerto Aguirre, Puerto Jennefer and Puerto Gravetal, which mobilize about one and a half million tons of cargo, one million corresponding to exports and half a million to imports.
The value of the waterway lies in its quality as a means of transportation, becoming the promoter of economic development and regional integration, in addition to encouraging the development of the Maritime, River, Lake and Merchant Marine Interests, on the other hand, the tendency to promote the competitiveness of our shipping operators and the sequential improvement of their quality management systems.
Nowadays and at the head of the Maritime Authority, the Paraguay-Parana Waterway is considered a priority for Bolivia, because it implies a great "development pole", through the creation of numerous direct and indirect sources of employment, both for the construction of infrastructure, as well as with the services that could be massified with a larger scale use of this exit route. Developing the merchant activity in the Paraguay-Parana Waterway is an economically plausible possibility, it increases the country's opportunities for the development of Maritime Interests, contributing among other things to the consolidation of Bolivian sovereignty, the generation of large volumes of cargo for export through water transport, being this river corridor enormously important.