Starting a business in Bolivia: foreigner's guide (2026)

President Rodrigo Paz declared a national economic, financial, energy, and social emergency, introducing 15-year legal stability guarantees for investors, a 30-day fast-track for strategic project approvals, zero tariffs on machinery imports through 2026, and accelerated tax depreciation — the most sweeping pro-business liberalization since the 1990s, directly lowering barriers to starting and scaling a business.

Center-right PDC leader Rodrigo Paz was inaugurated, ending 20 years of MAS-controlled governance; he pledged to streamline regulatory approvals, attract foreign direct investment, and reintegrate Bolivia into international investment frameworks, signaling a structural shift in the ease-of-doing-business environment.

The Servicio Plurinacional de Registro de Comercio (SEPREC) began accepting business registrations, replacing Fundempresa after its 20-year concession ended; SEPREC introduced online registration portals and operates offices in all departmental capitals, making it the current gateway for legally starting any business in Bolivia.

President Luis Arce issued D.S. 4596, establishing SEPREC with legal personality and financial autonomy under the Ministry of Productive Development, setting April 1, 2022 as Fundempresa's handover deadline — defining the institutional structure for commercial registration that remains in force today.

The Plurinational Legislative Assembly enacted Ley 1398, formally returning administration of the Registro de Comercio from private management to the Ministry of Productive Development, mandating creation of a new public entity within 15 days — ending the two-decade privatized registry model.

Bolivia enacted its Ley de Promoción de Inversiones, providing equal legal rights and guarantees to national and foreign investors and establishing promotional mechanisms; in practice, its reach was limited by the constitutional reservation of strategic sectors to the state and ongoing nationalization policies.

Ley 466 established a comprehensive regime for Bolivia's state-owned enterprises, including mixed enterprises, authorizing them to participate competitively in commercial markets alongside private firms; this significantly shaped the environment new private businesses enter, particularly in energy, agriculture, and logistics.

Bolivia's new Constitution (Art. 309) recognized and guaranteed freedom of private enterprise and investment, but reserved hydrocarbons, mining, water, and energy exclusively for state control and barred foreign investors from those sectors without state intermediation — creating the dual-track framework within which new businesses still operate.

The Banzer-Quiroga government granted a 20-year concession for the public Commerce Registry service to Fundempresa, a private non-profit consortium backed by Bolivia's national chambers of commerce and industry — marking the first time business registration was managed outside direct state control and setting the institutional model for two decades.

Ley 1788 formally created the Registro de Comercio as a distinct public institution, later organized by Supreme Decree 25160 (1998), establishing mandatory commercial registration for all businesses and merchants operating in Bolivia — the direct legal ancestor of today's SEPREC.

Bolivia's Ley de Inversiones established that foreign investors hold the same rights and obligations as Bolivian nationals, guaranteed free remittance of profits, and prohibited discriminatory confiscation — the first modern legislative pillar underpinning private business formation in the post-dictatorship democratic era.