Suriname: Presidential 'Crash Programme' creates 360 new classrooms

The government may be criticised for its spending policy, but at least its investments should cultivate goodwill amongst the Surinamese people. So far the presidential emergency 'Crash Programme' for the construction of new schools has provided 320 classrooms and, according to the Government, this should increase to 361 in the near future.

 

The power that President Desi Bouterse exerts through his committees and task forces has been criticised before. Political opponents argue that this form of policy is both "dictatorial and undemocratic". But it has also been demonstrated that these committees and task forces are an efficient way of delivering results. As an example the Presidential Task Force on Educational Innovation had to map the reasons for the disappointing exam results achieved by the various educational institutions. At very short notice it had advised on problems in 119 Surinamese schools and their results have been improved.

 

The programme involves both renovations and new construction projects. According to the government dozens of public facilities, restrooms, multimedia libraries, and ICT classrooms are being built. The total cost of the first phase of the project was around US$3.7 million.

 

The Task Force has not yet finished its work. The total Crash Programme budget is US$12.9 million. An inventory of the work that still has to be done has not yet been published.

 

For more news and expert analysis about Suriname, please see Suriname Politics & Security.

 

© 2013 Menas Associates

Suriname: Staatsolie testing E15 ethanol fuel for vehicles

 

Staatsolie will test 20 cars in December that will run on a mixture of ethanol and gasoline. The test programme will last five months and will be carried out by the Anton de Kom University. In the long run, the company is planning to introduce Suriname to green, environmentally-friendly and relatively more-sustainable fuel.

The 20 test cars are currently running on normal unleaded gasoline in order to gather the basic information of each vehicle. Starting in December, they will run solely on the E15 bio fuel for a period of four months, during which the effect of E15 on engine performance, fuel consumption and exhaust gases will be carefully logged. The E15 bio fuel is a mixture of 15% by volume ethanol and 85% by volume unleaded gasoline. This is a proven method - not least in neighbouring Brazil where most new cars run on so-called flex-fuel - that reduces costs and has a beneficial impact on the environment. The ethanol is produced from sugar cane, which grows very easily in Suriname, and decreases carbon monoxide emissions.

Staatsolie is currently researching the feasibility of producing ethanol from sugar cane at Wageningen in the Nickerie district in western Suriname. By the end of 2014, the company's new refinery will produce gasoline and it will most probably mix this with ethanol. By then, E15 should be readily available at the pumps throughout the country.

For more news and expert analysis about Suriname, please see Suriname Politics & Security.

© 2012 Menas Associates

Long-lasting Euro crisis harmful to Surinamese economy

In a reaction to Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel's statement that the current Eurozone economic crisis will continue for five more years, the tax lawyer, Robby Makka, has said that if it does so, it will harm the Surinamese economy. He expects that a prolonged crisis will lead to a decline in tourism, fewer investors and a decrease in money repatriated from the Netherlands to relatives in Suriname.

 

Makka hopes that the new Dutch government, sworn in by the Queen on Monday 5 November, would give a more positive perspective about the economy. Unfortunately, on the day after Prime Minister Mark Rutte's second government took office, it immediately became clear that prolonged cutbacks and a decline in purchasing power are being considered in the Netherlands.

 

Many Surinamese relatives in Holland transfer foreign currency every month to their family in Suriname, or ship boxes with relief supplies back home. However, unlike the shrinking or stagnating European economies, Suriname's resource-based economy is growing; there is a growing tendency among expatriate Surinamese to re-emigrate to their motherland to try their luck there.

For more news and expert analysis about Suriname, please see Suriname Politics & Security.

© 2012 Menas Associates

Suriname: IMF criticises subsidies to state-owned companies

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has criticised the way in which Suriname provides subsidies to a few large state-owned companies. In its recently published Country Report the Suriname Energy Company (EBS) is explicitly named and it described as having a "complicated issue of criss-crossing subsidies and mounting unpaid debts?. Meanwhile the EBS owes the government US$47 million for the electricity bill from the Afobaka Hydropower plant. It also does not pay for the diesel it receives from Staatsolie for the Wärtsilää generators at the Paramaribo power plant.

 

The IMF estimates that a total of US$84 million in subsidies was therefore provided to EBS in 2011. It states, however, that these financial constructions are not harmful to the Surinamese economy but do disguise the level of state subsidies to the public sector.

Analysis : It is obvious that Suriname still has problems operating in a business-like and transparent manner when it comes to the government supporting state companies. Besides the EBS the telecommunication company Telesur and Surinam Airways (SLM) also both receive indirect support from the government.

 

The lack of transparency gives a biased view of the flow of money and, in addition to that, it disguises information about investment constructions. For example, as noted in previous editions of Suriname Politics & Security, contracts for the power station which is run by Staatsolie were not put out to tender. The generators supplied by the Finnish company Wärtsilää were instead supplied by the businessman Dillip Sardjoe who is a confidant of the president and, at the same time, the Honorary Consul of Finland.

 

The IMF, does not, however, report on low prices that Suriname ?s population pays for energy. Electricity is fairly cheap which makes it difficult for campaigns on energy savings to be effective. Large-scale government investments in wind and solar energy have failed to get off the ground despite Suriname being in the position of being able to fully provide its own energy needs according to energy experts. If, for example, all of Suriname ?s cars ran on electricity the country would be able to generate energy for its entire fleet and still have sufficient energy to export to its neighbours.

 

For more news and expert analysis about Suriname, please see Suriname Politics & Security.
© 2012 Menas Associates

Suriname wants co-operation with Ecuador's petroleum sector

Guna Castelen, who is the leader of the Surinaamse Partij van de Arbeid (SPA) or Surinamese Labour Party was reported as saying that corruption remained one of the biggest threats for the development of the country. Corruption has, however, been a major problem for Suriname for many years including during the Venetiaan administration of which Castelen was a part. During his August 2010 inaugural speech President Bouterse had announced a ‘crusade against corruption’. Castelen claims that that there is still corruption in the country and he therefore regretted that the president has not touched upon this issue in his address.

Castelen said that he was happy that the President obviously recognises that during the past few years he has ‘filled a box with empty promises’. He claimed that the 2012 annual address was less ambitious and more realistic than the two previous addresses but that a number of new promises had been added.

One person who attended Bouterse’s address to parliament and who supports Castelen was reported as saying “Look at the construction of houses. During the 2010 election campaign Mr Bouterse was talking about a target of 30,000 houses. Now he talks about 18,000. We will see if he accomplishes half of this number. The government does not own land and in Suriname there are not enough labourers to do the job.”

For more news and expert analysis about Suriname, please see Suriname Politics & Security.

 

© 2012 Menas Associates

Suriname wants co-operation with Ecuador's petroleum sector

Suriname would like closer co-operation with Ecuador's mining and petroleum sector. In two months' time, Natural Resources Minister Jim Hok will travel to Quito to start discussions.

This was made clear during the official visit of Ecuador's Foreign Affairs Minister Ricardo Armando Patiño Aroca. With a 12-member delegation, he visited Suriname on 17 and 18 July. Suriname's Minister of Foreign Affaris Winston Lackin received his counterpart and delegation and there were talks on regional integration, climate change, markets for products, visa policy and tourism. Ecuador's tourism is booming; there is a 10% growth each year. Suriname is also busy establishing its tourism industry. Education was another topic of the discussions. At the end of the visit a 'Memorandum of Understanding' was signed in which, among other things, it was agreed that there will be an exchange programme of knowledge between both countries. Furthermore, there must be co-operation in the areas of trade and agriculture.

The visit of the Ecuadorian delegation must be seen in the light of deepening the regional integration. Suriname, being a small non-Spanish speaking country on the continent, has always been isolated compared to the Spanish-speaking countries. The Bouterse-Ameerali government is now trying to break out of this isolation.

For more news and expert analysis about Algeria, please see Suriname Politics & Security.

© 2012 Menas Associates

Suriname: Increase in domestic violence in rural areas

There has been an increase in reports of domestic violence in Suriname's rural areas and particularly in the districts of Nickerie and Commewijne; without mentioning exact figures the police and Justice Minister Edward Belfort say that in Commewijne 'daily' cases of domestic violence are reported. Nickerie has reports over 100 cases in the first half of 2012.

Belfort said that women are not the only the victims of domestic abuse and that men and children are also being hurt. Many cases are related to the low social conditions as well as to drug and alcohol abuse. The government plans to establish shelters and professional help for the victims, who currently can only seek refuge with relatives and friends because there are no professional facilities for them.

It should be noted that, in the last few years, sexual and domestic violence have been more focused on by the Surinamese authorities. One of the results has been that the taboo on the issues is broken. The increasing number of reports does not necessarily mean that the number of incidents has also increased. The higher number can be ascribed to the lowered threshold for the victims to report such incidents to the police.

For more news and expert analysis about Suriname, please see Suriname Politics & Security.

© 2012 Menas Associates

Suriname: Gregory Rusland is favourite to chair opposition NPS

Gregory Rusland, a former minister of national resources in the previous cabinet, is favourite to assume the presidency of the opposition National Party of Suriname (NPS). The party was almost permanently in office following the country's first democratic elections in 1987 after the military period. President Ronald Venetiaan governed the country twice – from 1991-96 and from 2000-10 - before being defeated by Dési Bouterse in the 2010 elections. Venetiaan, also known as 'the man with ten clean fingers', is still the NPS chairman but there has been criticism because of the lack of action during his presidency, with some people cynically saying that he has ten clean fingers because he did not use them.

Rusland was the minister who – as part of the Venetiaan government - signed a contract with Goldminer Iamgold which is often criticised as profitable for the Canadian multinational. Although it has never been proven, Rusland is often accused of corruption because, almost immediately after the deal was signed, he suddenly owned real estate in Florida which he could never have bought with his salary.

In this context, it is interesting to hear from Arnold Kruisland who is a senior and prominent NPS member. Without explicitly referring to Rusland's real estate, he said that “the NPS has a tradition of good governance by chairmen that only have 'ten clean fingers'. Any chairman of whom it is found out that he doesn't, will be removed. NPS, once the biggest political party of Suriname, is now in a deplorable state, having only two of the 51 seats in the National Assembly”.

For more news and expert analysis about Algeria, please see Suriname Politics & Security.

© 2012 Menas Associates