Short on foreign currency, Bolivia inaugurates a steel plant with the hope of reducing its reliance on metal imports, thanks to a loan from China. The Mutun megaproject in Puerto Suarez, near Bolivia's border with Brazil, was built at a cost of $546 million, financed in large part by the Export-Import Bank of China -- expanding its economic and political footprint in South America. "The fundamental objective is that all of us Bolivians can benefit from a natural resource that has remained unused for many years," President Luis Arce says at the inauguration event. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES