News item | 05-09-2022 | 18:05
Prime Minister Rutte and Minister Schreinemacher for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation will visit Suriname on Monday 12 and Tuesday 13 September 2022. VNO-NCW chairman Thijssen and various Dutch companies will also travel along. The purpose of the visit is to strengthen and broaden the bilateral relationship between the Netherlands and Suriname and confirm the special historical bond between the two countries.
Prime Minister Rutte will be received on Monday September 12 by President Santokhi of Suriname. Minister Schreinemacher and the Surinamese Minister of Foreign Affairs Ramdin will also be present. Subsequently, the Prime Minister has a conversation with Surinamese young people about, among other things, their ambitions, plans for the future and vision on social developments.
Earlier in the day, Minister Schreinemacher met with Minister Ramdin and spoke with representatives of civil society. She will also visit the National Coordination Center for Disaster Management to discuss recent flooding in Suriname. The Prime Minister and the Minister will conclude the first day of their visit with a dinner with the Surinamese and Dutch business community in the Presidential Palace, at the invitation of President Santokhi.
On Tuesday morning, September 13, Prime Minister Rutte and President Santokhi will lay a wreath together at the monument to the December murders in Fort Zeelandia. In the morning, Minister Schreinemacher will visit Deltares in Paramaribo, where she will receive an explanation about the water problem in the city.
Prime Minister Rutte and Minister Schreinemacher then go to the National Assembly, where the Prime Minister gives a speech to members of the Surinamese parliament. Afterwards, they jointly visit a Mangrove project. Here they plant trees in the context of coastal protection.
In the afternoon, Prime Minister Rutte and Minister Schreinemacher will participate in a working lunch with representatives of Dutch companies. The Prime Minister will then have a meeting with members of the National Slavery Past Remembrance Committee and the Suriname National Repair Committee. He also visits a Makandra Project in the field of police cooperation. At that time, Minister Schreinemacher is participating in Business Dialogue with companies about doing business in Suriname.
Prime Minister Rutte and Minister Schreinemacher conclude their visit to Suriname with a visit to the newly opened new building of the Surinaamse Brouwerij, part of the Heineken group.