BOARD OF DIRECTORS

BOARD RESOLUTION NO. 038/2024

SUBJECT: INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT – APPROVAL OF THE EXIT OF GOLD ACQUIRED IN THE DOMESTIC MARKET FROM THE NATIONAL CUSTOMS TERRITORY.

VISTOS:

The Political Constitution of the State, of February 7, 2009 (CPE).
Law No. 1670, of October 31, 1995, of the Central Bank of Bolivia (BCB) and its modifications.
Law No. 1503 of May 5, 2023, on the Purchase of Gold Intended for the Strengthening of International Reserves.
Supreme Decree No. 25870 of August 11, 2000, of the Regulation to the General Customs Law and its modifications.
The Statute of the BCB approved by Board Resolution No. 095/2022 of October 6, 2022.
The Regulation of the International Reserves Committee approved by Board Resolution No. 017/2023 of January 25, 2023.
The Regulation for the Administration of International Reserves approved by Board Resolution No. 071/2023 of May 9, 2023 and its modifications.
The Regulation for the Purchase of Gold in the Domestic Market Intended for the Strengthening of International Reserves, approved by Board Resolution No. 096/2023 of July 3, 2023 and its modifications.
The Technical Report BCB-GOI-SRES-DNI-INF-2024-22 of February 18, 2024, issued by the International Operations Management (GOI).

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The Legal Report BCB-GAL-SANO-DLBCI-INF-2024-88 of March 18, 2024, issued by the Legal Affairs Management (GAL).

CONSIDERING:

That Article 328 of the Political Constitution of the State establishes as one of the attributions of the Central Bank of Bolivia (BCB), in coordination with the economic policy determined by the Executive Branch, the administration of international reserves.
That Article 1 of Law No. 1670, modified by Article 64, section A3, numeral 1) of Law No. 1864 of June 15, 1998 on Popular Property and Credit, establishes that the BCB is a State institution, of public law, of an autarkic nature, of indefinite duration, with its own legal personality and assets and with legal domicile in the city of La Paz. It is the sole monetary and exchange authority of the country, with administrative, technical and financial competence and specialized regulatory powers of general application.
That Article 14 of Law No. 1670 establishes that the BCB will ensure the strengthening of International Reserves so that they allow the normal functioning of Bolivia's international payments.
That Article 15 of Law No. 1670 provides that the International Reserves of the BCB are constituted, among others, by physical gold.
That Article 44 of Law No. 1670 establishes that the highest authority of the BCB is its Board of Directors, which is responsible for defining its policies, specialized regulations of general application and internal rules; as well as establishing administrative, operational and financial strategies of the BCB, approving their respective short and medium-term programs. For the monitoring and oversight of their execution, it will have independent information, analysis and audit services.
That subsections a) and c) of Article 54 of Law No. 1670, indicate as attributions of the Board of Directors the following: Issue the rules and adopt the general decisions that would be necessary for the BCB to fulfill the functions, competencies and powers assigned to it by

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the Law; Monitor the execution of monetary, exchange, credit, financial intermediation, international reserves administration policies and regulations and others that correspond to the BCB in accordance with Law No. 1670.

That Article 1 of Law No. 1503 aims to authorize the BCB to purchase gold from the domestic market for the strengthening of International Reserves and to carry out financial operations with International Reserves in gold in international markets.
That paragraph II of Article 7 of Law No. 1503, provides that the exit from the national customs territory of the gold of the Central Bank of Bolivia for its refining abroad, will be approved by the Board of Directors of the BCB, in accordance with its regulations.
Article 9 of Law No. 1503 establishes that the BCB will carry out operations in international markets with gold reserves, being able to buy, invest, deposit in custody, use in hedging instruments, transform and convert them into foreign currency, in order to optimize the liquidity and/or return of International Reserves.
That Article 185 of Supreme Decree No. 25870 of August 11, 2000, of the Regulation to the General Customs Law and its modifications establishes that the exit from the national customs territory of international reserves, composed of convertible currencies and gold, by virtue of operations carried out by the BCB with international financial organizations and other institutions abroad, derived from its central banking functions or that are carried out to facilitate payment and credit operations, must be carried out in accordance with applicable legal provisions and prior presentation of the Resolution of the Ministry currently Ministry of Economy and Public Finance that authorizes such operation.
That subsections 1) and 3) of Article 5 of the Statute of the BCB provide that its Board of Directors has regulatory competence to issue specialized rules in the fields assigned by Law and technical competence for the formulation of policies and the application of instruments that allow it to fulfill its object.
That subsections 1) and 6) of Article 10 of the Statute of the BCB, provide that the Board of Directors

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has the attributions to approve general decisions and issue the rules that are necessary for the BCB to fulfill the functions, competencies and powers assigned to it by the Law, approve the policy and rules for the administration of International Reserves, as well as monitor their execution.

That paragraph I of Article 24 of said norm, provides that resolutions and decisions of the Board of Directors are adopted by a simple majority of votes of its members present in a meeting, except in cases where Law No. 1670 or the Statute of the BCB require qualified majorities.
That Article 26 of the Statute of the BCB, stipulate that the Board of Directors pronounces itself on matters within its competence through Resolutions. It can also do so through decisions that will be expressly recorded in the Minutes. Likewise, every draft resolution of the Board of Directors must be motivated and justified by a technical report from the Management or Managements to which the subject matter of the Resolution corresponds and by a report from the Legal Affairs Management. These reports must be sent to the Board of Directors by the General Management with its recommendation.
Subsection 5) of Article 6 of the Regulation of the International Reserves Committee establishes among others as a Function of the Committee to propose the treatment that will be applied to International Reserves investments in case of immediate liquidity requirement, to recommend to the BCB.
That Paragraph VI of Article 11 of the Regulation for the Administration of International Reserves establishes that the exit from the national customs territory of gold purchased locally, to carry out investment operations, will be approved by Board Resolution.
That Article 25 of the Regulation for the Purchase of Gold in the Domestic Market Intended for the Strengthening of International Reserves provides that the exit of gold from the national customs territory for the purpose of refining abroad will be approved by Board Resolution.
That Report BCB-GOI-SRES-DNI-INF-2024-22, recommends to the Board of Directors of the BCB to approve the exit from the national customs territory of 105 gold bars acquired in the

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domestic market with an approximate weight of 0.93 tons, of which it is estimated 0.88 tons of fine gold, destined to Turkey for the purpose of refining abroad; likewise, it recommends authorizing investment operations of refined gold in accordance with what is established in the Regulation for the Administration of International Reserves.

That Report BCB-GAL-SANO-DLBCI-INF-2024-88, concludes that the authorization of the exit from the national customs territory of the gold acquired in the domestic market for its refining and the carrying out of investment operations does not violate current regulations and is concordant with Law No. 1503 on the Purchase of Gold Intended for the Strengthening of International Reserves, the Regulation for the Purchase of Gold in the Domestic Market Intended for the Strengthening of International Reserves and the Regulation for the Administration of International Reserves is legally procedent, being viable its approval by the Board of Directors of the BCB as it does not contravene any legal provision and is within the attributions of the BCB.

THEREFORE,

THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE CENTRAL BANK OF BOLIVIA

RESOLVES:

Article 1.- Approve the exit from the national customs territory of 105 gold bars acquired in the domestic market with an approximate weight of 0.93 tons, of which it is estimated 0.88 tons of fine gold, destined to Turkey for the purpose of refining abroad.

Article 2.- Authorize the investment operations of the gold resulting from the refining indicated in the preceding article, in accordance with what is established in the Regulation for the Administration of International Reserves.

Article 3.- In accordance with Article 26 of the Regulation for the Purchase of Gold in the Domestic Market Intended for the Strengthening of International Reserves, the International Operations Management will process the Ministerial Resolution that authorizes the exit of gold from the national customs territory before the Ministry of Economy and Public Finance.

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Article 4.- The Presidency and the General Management are in charge of the compliance with this Resolution.

La Paz, March 18, 2024

SIGNED: OSCAR FERRUFINO MORRO, Gabriel Herbas Camacho, Gumercindo Héctor Pino Guzmán, Diego Alejandro Perez Cueto Eulert.

Board Resolution No. 038/2024