Suriname offers timber, palm oil cooperation
JAKARTA (JP): Visiting Suriname President Jules Albert Wijdenbosch offered Indonesian timber companies and palm oil plantations yesterday to expand their business in the South American country.
Wijdenbosch also told President Soeharto that his country was interested in cooperating with Indonesia in the agricultural and fishery sectors, especially the prawn breeding business.
"The government encourages private timber companies to invest in Suriname, one or two of our companies are operating there now," said Minister/State Secretary Moerdiono in a briefing on the two leaders' meeting.
The presence of Indonesian timber companies in Suriname sparked controversy in 1995. Environmentalists alleged that two Indonesian companies had been awarded logging concessions by collusion.
NV Mitra Usaha Sejati Abadi (MUSA) and SURI Atlantic obtained the concession of 150,000 hectares of forest in 1993 near the Courantyne River in West Suriname.
Suriname's government was forced by opposition parties to postpone the companies' second request for an additional 1.105 million-hectare logging concession.
"Indonesian investors operating here must obey local regulations and the Suriname government should not hesitate to reprimand and impose sanctions against Indonesian firms violating the rules here," Soeharto said when visiting the country in October 1995.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas and his counterpart Errol G. Snijders signed yesterday two memorandums of understanding on agriculture and the establishment of a joint commission to boost economic relations.
Trade between the two countries is still low. Indonesian exports in 1996 amounted to US$1.13 million while imports was only $173,683.
The two countries also signed an agreement on cultural cooperation. This is considered important because about 14.2 percent of Suriname's population of 425,000 people are Surinamese of Javanese descent.
The Javanese immigrants were brought to the country early this century by the Dutch, who colonized both Indonesia and Suriname.
Wijdenbosch and his entourage arrived here Tuesday for a four- day official visit. His entourage includes Minister of Natural Resources Liakat Errol Alibux and Minister of Agriculture, Husbandry and Fisheries Saimin Redjosentono.
"We will also encourage our private companies to open palm oil plantations there," Moerdiono said.
This morning Wijdenbosch will visit Borobudur and Prambanan temples in Yogyakarta before leaving for Bali in the afternoon.
He will return to Suriname tomorrow on a commercial flight. (prb)