(de Ware Tijd) PARAMARIBO – Suriname’s Port Authority needs an additional US$ 30 million to consolidate its leading position in the region, director John Defares tells de Ware Tijd. The port has just completed five years of expansion and modernization costing US$ 100 million. ‘The additional investment will be good for the next 20 years. All we need to do is constantly see to good maintenance of our operations. We don’t have that kind of money available, but we won’t bother the government since its priorities have changed. The Port Authority should be able to earn that money’, Defares says. This year, parts of the additional funds will be spent on necessary infrastructural works both in Paramaribo and the District of Nickerie amounting to US$ 8 million. The US$ 3 million investment in the rice district is to improve quay facilities. The Port Authority executive says he is forced to cough up close to US$ 5 million for dredging the area near the quay as the Maritime Authority Suriname will start dredging the fairway in the Suriname River by the end of next month. The remainder of the additional investment, close to US$ 18 million, will be spent on improving harbor facilities, including roads and the plot where cooling containers are stored. A possible solution would be to apply the BOT (Build Operate Design) system, allowing entrepreneurs to finance investments which they will exploit for a few years and then again hand over to the Port Authority. The main objective is to transform the entire harbor into a transit port for French Guiana, Guyana and the north of Brazil and even the eastern Caribbean. Defares explains that Dutch consultants will make a feasibility study into the plans. The French are eager to use the Paramaribo port facilities since it is much cheaper than their own.
