Guyana, Suriname can be regional leaders on food, energy security – Robert Persaud

Guyana’s Foreign Secretary, Robert Persaud, believes that there are potential opportunities for Guyana and Suriname to work together on becoming regional leaders in areas such as food and energy security – a partnership that can be used as a cooperation model for the wider Caribbean.

He made these remarks during a panel discussion that focused on translating individual growth into collective regional advancement – an event of the International Business Conference (IBC) Guyana 2025 being held in Georgetown. Also on the panel were Guyana’s Tourism, Industry and Commerce Minister Susan Rodrigues, as well as Suriname’s Minister of Economic Affairs, Entrepreneurship and Technological Innovation Andrew Baasaron, and Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Business and Cooperation Melvin Bouva.
Speaking about how Guyana’s foreign policy aligns with Suriname and other Caribbean Community (CARICOM) members to strengthen regional cooperation, Persaud highlighted that there are some areas where Guyana and Suriname, specifically, can twin their efforts and resources to support each other in becoming major regional leaders.
“We can be key leaders in dealing with the issue of food insecurity for the region,” he pointed out.
Currently, Guyana is already leading the CARICOM food and nutrition security initiative, 25 by 2025+5 – a plan to reduce the region’s high food import bill by 25 per cent by 2030 and bolster programmes for countries to produce their own food through support for farmers, businesses and the involvement of women and youth.
According to the Foreign Secretary, a lot of work has already been done in these areas across the region, but he noted that a collaboration between Guyana and Suriname could further enhance these efforts.

Shared resources
Similarly, he pointed out that the shared resources between the two neighbouring countries can also set an example for regional collaboration in the area of energy security.
“We know this region is very vulnerable to energy shocks, price shocks because of our dependency on imported fuel. In Guyana’s case, we see ourselves as providing that solution in making the region much more energy secure,” he noted.
With Guyana being a leading oil and gas producer in the CARICOM region and Suriname an emerging producer, Persaud believes this will position the two countries to become major energy sources.
“This is another opportunity for Guyana and Suriname to integrate our energy ecosystems and to allow us to offer to the Caribbean and the CARICOM region some sort of solution or ease going forward in dealing with the issue of energy security… Those are some of the opportunities that have presented themselves for Guyana and Suriname to work together again and to showcase and offer that as a model for the wider Caribbean,” the Foreign Security posited.

Regional energy corridor
President Ali has long been pushing the establishment of a regional energy corridor. In fact, Guyana, Suriname and Brazil had already started talks on combining their ability to create an energy corridor and unlocking the potential for a series of manufacturing and industrial developments, with several other island nations in the Caribbean, including Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago, also previously expressing interest in the initiative.
With Suriname now forging ahead with its first offshore petroleum development project, high-level discussions were held earlier this year with senior officials from the Dutch-speaking nation and the Guyana Government.
On the side-lines of the Energy Conference, Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo and Natural Resources Minister Vickram Bharrat had met with Managing Director of Staatsolie – Suriname’s state-owned oil company, Annand Jagesar, to discuss that potential collaboration.
President Dr Irfaan Ali has always spoken often of a regional energy corridor as Guyana moves to monetise its gas resources, which will be an independent project from the model Gas-to-Energy (GtE) initiative that is currently under construction at Wales, West Bank Demerara. The GtE project comprises a Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) facility and a 300-megawatt power plant utilising the rich natural gas from the Liza Fields in the Stabroek Block, offshore Guyana.
United States energy firm Fulcrum LNG Inc. has been selected to work in a tripartite arrangement with the Guyana Government and ExxonMobil to develop a potential gas project.
The Guyanese leader had previously proposed several projects that are being considered for this gas monetisation plan, including the export of energy to Northern Brazil, a deep-water port facility, an additional power plant, a fertiliser facility, a data centre, and a potential joint aluminium plant facility using bauxite from both Guyana and Suriname.
In the oil-rich Stabroek Block, which United States oil major ExxonMobil and its co-venturers are operating, some 17 trillion cubic feet of gas has already been found, with the Pluma and Haimara wells being proven gas fields. These wells will be tapped into with the Longtail Development Project, Exxon’s eighth development in the Stabroek Block.
Moreover, the United States oil giant’s seventh offshore development – the Hammerhead Project – also has massive gas resources, which the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government is looking to develop.