The Bolivian government is planning a new data center in the city of El Alto.

During a session of honor for the 38th anniversary of the city, President Luis Arce this week announced the ‘Alternate Data Center’ project ("Integral Data Center Alterno"), which he said would be a ‘milestone’ for digitization in the South American country.

The facility will be located in District 2 to the south and will ‘house computer systems on a national scale,’ though more detailed specifications were not shared.

"The comprehensive project of the Alternate Data Center in El Alto is being managed, which will benefit the 14 districts of our city, and will serve to store the identity information of Bolivians throughout the national territory," he said.

El Alto, next to La Paz, is located in the west of the country close to the Peruvian and Chilean borders.

The project, which President Arce said would “lead to the digitization of the country,” will see a pre-investment amount of around 772,000 Bolivianos ($112,000) and a total estimated investment of more than 140 million Bolivianos ($20.3 million).

Bolivian news agency ABI said the new data center would house identity information of the population and support the General Personal Identification Service (Segip) around identity cards and driving licenses.

While not a major data center market compared to other countries in the region, Bolivia’s local colocation and hosting providers include Confiared and ITC, while telcos such as Millicom-owned Tigo and Entel operate facilities in the country.