Over the past several months there has been considerable interest in Suriname, a small former Dutch colony located in the northeastern part of South America, primarily driven by a major oil discovery. Like Guyana next door, it appears that Suriname has substantial offshore oil reserves, which could do much to increase the country’s national wealth, improve day-to-day life for 560,000 Surinamers, and reduce the country’s increasingly heavy debt burden. Also like Guyana, Suriname faces the challenges of how to manage that newfound wealth. This, in turn, raises the issue of the need for good governance
