PARAMARIBO, Suriname, CMC – Suriname has called for regional cooperation and partnerships to develop and optimize the investment climate, with a focus also on building the region’s human capital.
“By combining the wealth beneath the waters with the talent of the population and the power of collaboration, Suriname, together with the region, can move towards a sustainable and inclusive future. Let us seize this moment. Let us build partnerships. Let us create opportunities. And together, let us make Suriname shine,” Foreign Affairs, International Business and International Cooperation Minister, Melvin Bouva, told the Caribbean Energy Week, which ends here on Wednesday.
The conference has brought together government leaders, investors, and top executives to position the Caribbean as one of the world’s fastest-growing energy regions, and Suriname has said it wants to leverage its rapidly growing energy sector to advance broader economic development and international cooperation.
Bouva said that Suriname finds itself at a historic crossroads and that recent offshore discoveries have firmly placed the Dutch-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country on the global energy map.
But he told delegates that at the same time, natural resources in themselves are no guarantee of prosperity and that the oil and gas sector must serve as a driver of broader economic transformation.
“The success of the sector will not be measured solely in barrels, but primarily in the companies that emerge, the skills that are developed, and the partnerships that are built,” Bouva said, noting that partnerships form a core component of Suriname’s economic strategy. He said in this context, diplomacy is no longer exclusively political, but also economic, involving connecting opportunities with investments, ideas with capital, and ambitions with international partners.
“Diplomacy is no longer exclusively political, but also economic: connecting opportunities with investments, ideas with capital, and ambition with partners,” he said.
Bouva said that the development of natural resources must lead to sustainable value creation, with room for strong local participation and growth of Surinamese companies alongside foreign investors.
He said that energy in itself is no guarantee of prosperity and that the oil and gas sector should not be viewed as an end goal, but as a starting point for further growth.
and then 