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Bolivia to pay back loan to China for Tupac Katari satellite

Xinhua, June 2, 2016 Adjust font size:

Bolivia is set to make its fifth loan payment worth 10 million U.S. dollars to the China Development Bank for a satellite China helped the South American country build and launch, the Bolivian Space Agency (ABE) announced on Wednesday.

Bolivia has been making biannual payments for the Bolivian Tupac Katari satellite. In December 2010, the Bolivian government and the Chinese bank finalized a loan agreement worth 295 million dollars to finance the Tupac Katari satellite.

Ivan Zambrana, executive director of the ABE, said "with this payment in June, we will have paid back around 50 million dollars. We are honoring our credit with our own resources to make use of the satellite and we will have covered the costs of this investment in 15 years."

The satellite was designed to provide Internet service across much of Bolivia, radio and communications emissions. It is named in honor of an 18th century indigenous Bolivian warrior who fought off the Spanish conquistadors. The satellite is 2.36 meters long, 2.1 meters wide and weighs 5.3 tons.

The state-run National Telecommunications Company (Entel) is the main user of the satellite, which was launched on Dec. 21, 2013 from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China's southwestern province of Sichuan.

Through the satellite, Entel hopes to expand mobile telephone, broadband Internet, TV and radio service throughout Bolivia, especially to the more remote communities. Endi