Bolivia's Ministry of Economy and Public Finance appoints new pensions and financial services vice minister and ASP-B executive manager

Bolivia's Ministry of Economy and Public Finance swore in Gustavo Blacutt Alcalá as Vice Minister of Pensions and Financial Services and Zoila Tania Olmos Tejada as Executive Manager of the Administration of Port Services – Bolivia (ASP-B), setting out mandates focused on modernising financial-sector policy and supervision and improving port logistics to reduce foreign trade costs. For the vice ministry, the minister tasked Blacutt with promoting fintech and interoperable digital payments, updating regulation to support innovation without compromising stability, expanding financial inclusion in rural areas and for women, young people and microenterprises, strengthening supervision and solvency in line with Basel standards, and digitising procedures to reduce bureaucracy while applying merit-based technical staffing. On pensions, the minister reiterated that pensions, retirements and insurance payments will be made and said the public pension manager should focus on safeguarding workers’ savings rather than financing government needs, with Blacutt pointing to coordination with the Financial System Supervisory Authority (ASFI) and public and private financial institutions. For ASP-B, Olmos was instructed to digitise and simplify port processes, optimise the tariff structure to reduce logistics costs and times, diversify routes and ports including Puerto Busch and the Hidrovía, certify processes under quality and anti-corruption standards, strengthen engagement with the private sector, and negotiate tariff reductions where costs are considered abusive.