Caricom’s bauxite miners must industrialise to withstand impact of volatile commodity prices

Suriname's President Desi Bouterse on Monday urged Caribbean Community (Caricom) member states that are involved in bauxite mining, mining of other industrial metal ores, and oil to unite towards industrialisation rather than continue to be vulnerable to global commodity prices.

“Those member-states of Caricom and the wider Caribbean, which have been dependent on the extractive sectors, need to get together to discuss meaningful ways to shift from the export of commodities of the industrial products. We have to join hands both nationally and regionally to consider effective ways of industrializing our economies and seriously improve our service sector by linking productivity with connectivity,” he said.

Guyana has long harboured ambitions of resuscitating the production of alumina (refined from bauxite, the pricipal ore of aluminium) which requires large amounts of electricity.

Bouterse said that due to the “battle of the currencies” countries that sell bauxite, gold, oil and other extracted commodities are confronted with the reality of ever decreasing and unstable prices. With the likelihood of commodity prices unlikely to peak to what they had been in recent years, the Surinamese leader called on those producing nations to diversify their economies. “We have to industrialise and develop our service industries to the point where they become solid foreign currency earners, characerised by sustainability,” he said.

Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and Suriname produce oil in commercial quantities. Suriname and Guyana are also large producers-exporters of gold and bauxite.

The Surinamese President also urged fellow Caricom leaders to explore the possibility of teaming up with the Caribbean Forum- that’s Caricom and the Dominican Republic- and the wider of Association of Caribbean States (ACS) to craft new tourism marketing strategies.

“We could use the meeting of the Heads of State of Caricom to urge the Secretariat of our Community to establish the connection with the ACS Secretariat to nominate experts who would advise us on innovative ways of creating new packages offering international tourists both our white beaches and eco-tourism,” he said.