At the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Entrepreneurship and Technological Innovation (EZ) a meeting was held on Monday between Minister Saskia Walden and the Alliance of business organizations. During the introductory visit, the Alliance exchanged ideas with the minister about its position with regard to local content and partnerships with multinationals. The minister believes that local content should be raised to a higher level.

She is in favor of Suriname developing local content, whereby the CARICOM market is regarded as a local sales market and that the products meet the requirements of this market. Various routes will be taken from the directorates of EZ to take local content to a higher level.

Wilgo Bilkerdijk, representative of the Association of Surinamese Manufacturers (ASFA), said during this meeting that it is important that local content does indeed come. This is due to the fact that it is of great value for the economic development of the country. This allows local Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to offer services to multinationals and have room to grow.

The partnerships with the government and the business community are of eminent importance. The ASFA chairman therefore argues in favor of government policy on local content, whereby legislation is strengthened and investors are protected. The organization is already working with the Suriname Standards Bureau (SSB) to establish standards.

MORE