Bolivian Vice President: A New Century of Science and Knowledge

“We’re going to begin to produce ideas, what we’re going to begin to export are ideas, said Bolivian Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera speaking April 23 at the Cochabamba International Fair.

An enthusiastic advocate of educating his nation’s youth in science and technology, Garcia stressed that Bolivia is now ready to enter a new era, the “society of knowledge.” And, he added, Cochabamba, one of the nation’s most important cities, with a vibrant and energetic young population, “is the ideal location in which to launch this new phase of development of the economy which must guide the destiny of Bolivia for the next 100 years… The success we’ve seen in a few private companies here in Cochabamba, which on a small scale have opted for science and knowledge, has led the President and me to say that we have to do this in all of Bolivia.” Both public and private universities must be involved in this process, he stated.

The country’s first “science city”—the City of Knowledge—should be built in Cochabamba, Garcia underscored. It should be organized so that specific areas of science and technology linked to both the internal and external market will be selected, to educate the “little brains” of the 21st Century. The best students will be selected and educated from high school through college, to use their knowledge later in service to the nation.

Nor is Garcia limiting his focus to Bolivia. Speaking April 27 in Santa Cruz at the First Conference of the Andean sector of the Latin American and Caribbean Continental Student Organization (OCLAE), Garcia urged students to take up the challenge posed by science and technology, to fight for “scientific and technological emancipation,” so that nations don’t have to depend on Europe or the U.S. for the technology required for their industrialization. Without mentioning the BRICS, he noted that “the world economy is being redefined for the next 50 years,” right now, and urged students to engage in the political process to ensure that their nations move from economic sovereignty to “scientific and technological sovereignty.”