Currently 8 official IIRSA projects, including trans-border projects, are slated for implementation in Suriname. Together these projects require an estimated investment of $1.2 billion. All of them fall within the Guianese Shield integration hub. The projects are fairly well distributed among the transportation, border crossings, and energy sectors.
Like neighboring Guyana, its relatively small size and “underdeveloped” status has compelled Suriname to embrace IIRSA. In fact, Suriname’s government is particularly interested in the Venezuela-Guyana-Suriname Interconnection project (cluster #3 in the Guianese Shield hub), and is said to be favoring the construction of a road whose alignment will run farther inland from the Caribbean coast, through an area of Western Suriname where it has awarded 2 bauxite mining concessions. Surinamese leaders have also expressed an interest in using IIRSA to facilitate the extraction of rich and “under-exploited” natural resources from the forestlands to the south.