According to the Art. 416 of the Commercial Code, in order for a foreign company to operate in Bolivia, it must be registered in the Commercial Registry by establishing either a branch or a permanent representation with a domicile within the territory of the Republic.

According to Art. 11 of the Investment Promotion Law, there is an obligation for foreign direct investment to generate technology transfer under at least one of the following modalities:
- Generation of capacities and skills in Bolivian personnel from technical institutes, technological institutes, technological colleges and universities of the Plurinational Educational System, in the technical areas developed by the investment. The incorporation of Bolivian personnel shall contemplate the operational, administrative and executive areas, observing promotion policies linked to the capacities and skills acquired;
- Transfer of state-of-the-art technological machinery and equipment to technical institutes, technological institutes, technological colleges, universities of the Plurinational Educational System and public entities linked to the investment area, through agreements with clearly defined objectives and goals according to the interest of the parties;
- Develop applied research within the company aimed at improving the industrial process or contributing to public welfare.

According to Art. 16 of the Investment Promotion Law, foreign investment in strategic sectors of the State, including in the telecommunications sector, can only be made in mixed capital companies in which the State has a majority shareholding.

According to Art. 6 of the Supreme Decree No. 27328, in the contracting of consulting services, international companies can only participate in partnership with local consulting firms.

According to Art. 28 of the General Telecommunications, Information and Communication Technologies Law, broadcasting companies can have a maximum of 25% of foreign investment participation, except as determined by the State through international agreements and treaties. It is not clear whether this provisions also applies to online broadcasting.

Bolivia is not a party to the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA), nor does it have observer status.

According to Art. 16 of the Investment Promotion Law, foreign investment in strategic sectors of the State, including in the telecommunications sector, can only be made in mixed capital companies in which the foreign investors has less than the 50% of the shareholding, and the State has a majority shareholding.

According to Art. 48 of the Supreme Decree No. 27328, the government must give priority to small and micro producers and "campesino" associations in purchases of less than one million Bolivianos (Bs. 1,000,000.00/ approx 145,700 USD). In addition, the government requires fewer guarantees and imposes fewer requirements on Bolivian suppliers that qualify as small or micro-producers or as "campesino" associations.

It is reported that the bidding process in Bolivia is not transparent as Government requirements and bidding details are not always defined, and procurement announcements are not always made public. Among other things, none of the state-owned companies in the strategic sectors (including the telecommunications sector) are required to publish tenders through the official procurement website "Sistema de Información de Contrataciones Estatales". In addition, concerns are raised that these state-owned companies are not obliged to follow the procedures established in the national procurement law.

According to Art. 6 of the Supreme Decree No. 27328, in the contracting of consulting services, international companies can only participate in partnership with local consulting firms. Moreover, under Art. 39, foreign consultants are required to transfer their technology and knowledge to be hired under public procurement.

According to Art. 25 of the Supreme Decree No. 27328, the Qualification Committee may apply a margin of national preference for national and international public calls for proposals. For proposals of nationally manufactured goods, whose percentage of national components (inputs and labor) are between 30% and 50% of the gross production cost, benefit from a margin of preference of 15%, while for proposals whose percentage of components is greater than or equal to 51% of national origin (inputs and labor) of the gross cost of production, the applicable margin of preference goes up to 20%.

According to Art. 19 of the Supreme Decree No. 27328, public calls for national purchases of up to Bs. 8,000,000 (approx. 1,166,000 USD), shall be directed exclusively to national production companies legally established in Bolivia. Foreign companies are excluded from these processes unless there is no national providers available to be contracted. In the event that the public bidding process is declared void, in accordance with the grounds set forth in Art. 28 of the Supreme Decree, another public bidding process shall be carried out to allow the participation of foreign bidders.

According to Art. 19 of the Supreme Decree No. 27328, the participation of foreign bidders in public bids may be limited according to national security policies, strategies and criteria, in accordance with applicable legal provisions.

Bolivia is not a signatory of the 1996 World Trade Organization (WTO) Information Technology Agreement (ITA) nor the 2015 expansion (ITA II).