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RI to strengthen economic cooperation with Suriname
Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi visited Suriname on Monday in the first full-fledged working visit of an Indonesian foreign minister to the small country located on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America for 26 years
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span>Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi visited Suriname on Monday in the first full-fledged working visit of an Indonesian foreign minister to the small country located on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America for 26 years.
Both Indonesia and Suriname expressed their commitment to strengthen economic cooperation and people-to-people cooperation based on special historical and cultural relations during a bilateral meeting between Retno and her counterpart Yldiz Deborah Pollack-Beighle on Monday.
“Indonesia and Suriname agreed to strengthen economic cooperation,” Retno said after the bilateral meeting in Paramaribo. “With our special historical and cultural relations, it is very natural for Indonesia and Suriname to strengthen bilateral relations in various fields, especially economics and development.”
Javanese people make up 14 percent of Suriname’s population of 558,000. Most of them are the descendants of workers contracted by the former Dutch East Indies and were brought from Java following the abolition of African slavery in 1863.
Some areas of economic cooperation that have the potential to be strengthened include infrastructure, mining, energy, sharia banking as well as livestock, especially artificial insemination.
“Indonesia expressed its interest in participating in infrastructure projects in Suriname, including projects that were funded by the Islamic Development Bank,” Retno said.
“Indonesia expressed its interest in participating in infrastructure projects in Suriname.”
In an effort to tap into such opportunities, the Indonesian business delegation visited Suriname in March.
Areas that received attention from Indonesian businesspeople included gold mining, urban development and solar panel manufacturing for housing.
Indonesia also affirmed on Monday its commitment to help Suriname in developing sharia banking, with Retno saying “Bank Syariah Mandiri [a subsidiary of Bank Mandiri] has supported efforts to increase capacity in sharia risk management and accounting”.
Meanwhile, Bank Indonesia also sent a team to Suriname to provide training in regulation and supervision of Islamic banking.
In addition to economic cooperation, both Retno and her counterpart discussed the progress of diplomatic education and training — the agreement of which was signed in December last year.
In March, Indonesia sent a team in the development of diplomatic education and training.
On Monday, the two foreign ministers also signed an agreement on visa exemptions for Indonesian passport holders for short visits to Suriname.
During the visit, Retno also paid a courtesy visit to Suriname President Desire Delano Bouterse.
