Between New York and Paramaribo, accents shifted, revealing how diplomacy, financing, infrastructure and politics intersect, as in the UN hall, President Jennifer Simons called for accelerating gender equality with an emphasis on equal opportunities in education and protection against violence. The president outlined the image of Surinamese women who have carried freedom and progress for generations, calling for extra attention to STEM education so that girls can have the professions of tomorrow within reach and social media have less room to undermine self-image.
At home in the economy, the Central Bank is opting for more oxygen in value-creating businesses by temporarily reducing the foreign currency cash reserve, giving banks additional credit space for sectors that determine long-term earning power. These are oil and gas with solid local supplies, export-oriented agriculture, ecotourism that attracts foreign income, major works on roads bridges ports and airports, digital infrastructure and renewable energy as well as import substitution that makes us less vulnerable. Trade transactions such as procurement and resale are explicitly excluded from this scheme, keeping the money focused on productive investments and allowing the Bank to periodically review with the sector whether the measure is indeed creating jobs and competitiveness.
Water and roads are simultaneously getting a technical update that makes daily livability palpable, the civil wet works branch presented a package for the coming months with the eye-catcher being the complete renovation of the lock on Brantimakka Road where modern incabin culverts together with a spindle lock regulate levels more precisely and speed up drainage. The dry works department put on the table a maintenance program and a multi-year approach by district so that rehabilitation and development of the road network no longer rush from project to project but follow a visible schedule and citizens know in a timely manner what is happening when.
In politics, there is movement across the hall where opposition and parliament are rearranging their pieces, VHP chairman Chan Santokhi spoke at the memorial of party icon Jagernath Lachmon about decades of opposition experience and about the new reality in which the party sits alone in the opposition benches and therefore must listen and act more broadly. National Assembly Speaker Ashwin Adhin is preparing a housekeeping meeting in which Santokhi's admission and a new member for the NDP will be formalized on Sept. 29.
Across sector boundaries, the agricultural chain is looking for scale and knowledge sharing, Mr. Glenn Geerlings spoke in Guyana with Minister Zulfikar Mustapha about closer cooperation using the progress made in crops agribusiness and aquaculture in recent years as a reference, the message is that proven approaches from the region can also be applied here when young people and other stakeholders are included from the start and when projects are coordinated quickly and clearly through official channels so that the bilateral line does not get lost in loose initiatives.
