December 21, 1998

GANGARAM PANDAY NEW DEAN OF THE ORDER OF COUNSELS

Mr. Geetapersaud Gangaram Panday has been nominated Dean of the Order of Counsels in Suriname. He willl take the place of Ronald van Ritter who passed away on October 14 1998. Gangaram Panday has been Vice-Chairman since 1993 and has acted as Dean since van Ritter's death. The present order is a new team with only 2 older members from the past order. Gangaram Panday has stated that there will be a few changes here and there but for the most part this team will carry out the policy of the past years. The committee has already held its first meeting yesterday and will meet again in the first week of January.

FROM JANUARY 1ST DUTCH VISAS TO BE PAID IN US$

The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced that from January 1st 1999 Suriname Citizens will have to pay for Dutch Visas in US$ currency. This according to Klaas Ruijd, head of the Councilaire department at the Dutch Embassy in Paramaribo is a logistic rule that will be enforced in all countries where there is a Dutch Embassy. The choice for the US$ Dllrs was made because this currency tends to be more stable than the Dutch Guilder. The price for a vacation Visa for a month will now be US$ 26.00 and for 3 months US$ 35.00. Dutch ex-patriates residing in Suriname will have to pay US$ 52.00 to renew their passports while children's passports will cost US$ 38.00 to be renewed. Ruijd has stated that the regulation of the foreign exchange committee that no goods be priced in US$ Dllrs does not apply for the Embassy that according to him is soverign and follows the orders of the Dutch Government. He also added that he did not think that this will effect the visa applications since tickets are also being sold in foreign currency.

BAUXITE SECTOR STILL THE MOST IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTOR

Henk Goedschalk, President of the Central Bank of Suriname has stated that the BAUXITE SECTOR that brought in a netto of US$ 102 million in 1997 will only bring in around US$ 80 million this year. This according to Goedschalk is due to the fall in prices on the world market. Even though the export of alumina has increased in 1998 from 1.6 to 1.7 million tons the price of alumina has seen a heavy decline. The aluminum market has also seen a decline in sales. The Banks President also stated that the RICE SECTOR, another important exporter that brought in US$ 30 million in 1997 dropped to a mere US$ 16 million with the possibility of an extra US$ 4 million to come in by the ending of the year. The decline in this sector is mainly due to the crisis that rocked this sector earlier this year. According to Goedschalk the newly signed agreement with the rice sector is a concrete step towards the viability of this sector for the future. Over the OIL SECTOR Goedschalk reported that Staatsolie (State Oil) had registered an export of US$ 52 million in 1997 which brought in US$ 27 million in 1997 this fell in 1998 to US$ 25 million. the SHRIMP and BANANA exports have also seen a decline in sales for 1998. The only sector that has been sucessful so far this year is the GOLD SECTOR that has a formal and an informal side to it. This product that has seen a decline of more than 25% in price over the past years expects a rise this year. The CBvS bought 3900 kgms in gold in 1997. When an amount of 20.000 kgrms is expected from this sector per year one realizes the significent amount that is being smuggled out of the country. The figures for 1998 have so far been 5843 kgrms until November which is expected to increase to about 6400 kgrms by December. With the instalation of the Gold Mining Committee earlier this year the Government hopes to control the activities of this sector in the interior.

DISCONTENT WITHIN THE BVD BEGINS TO SHOW

The gulf of discontent within the BVD has begun to show now that the Advice Board Members have demanded that the Party's leadership be cleaned-up. The members Tjan Gobardhan (Chairman), Dilip Sardjoe (Treasurer), Dharm Mungra and Shailendra Girjasing (Chairmen of the Advice Committee), have been accused of corruption and of shaddy reputations by the Advice committee who would like to have them thrown out of the party or resign on their own free will, if not they will then suffer the consiquences that the advice board has in store for them.

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