Bolivia's President Evo Morales and Iran's Industry Minister Ali Akbar Mehrabian
Interesting article from the Voice of America today.
Of particular importance in this news: 1) the loan is intended to help “end the unilateralism” (President Evo Morales) of the world powers; and 2) the loan has no use restrictions. The lack of spending restrictions has been one of the biggest complaints against many of the new players in the aid field (China, Venezuela, and Iran, for example). Where much of Western aid is conditional on improvements in human rights and democratization, aid from these new players is not, raising fears that developing countries will turn away from Western aid in favor of untied grants from other players.