Entrepreneur

Do you want to start up a company in Suriname?

DISCOVER SURINAME is the investment and trade promotion program of Suriname.
We focus on increasing entrepreneurship in Suriname. Here you can find out how and in what topic you can start up a business or build a subsidiary in Suriname.

Large to Medium Enterprises (LMEs)

Currently, Suriname has three commercial organizations that have a revenue of over 100 million USD per year.

That said, Suriname is looking for new LME's, or subsidiaries of foreign companies to be founded here.

In every industry, there is a lot of room for competition and potential new market leadership.

A few business opportunities in Suriname for an LME (production industry, plants or plantations) are rice, cacao, coconut, pineapple, palm oil, bananas, air conditioning, solar panels, glass, ceramics, beer, candy, cheese, milk, sillicon wafers, call centers, hotels, resorts, construction, engineering, and many more.

This picture shows the new tallest building in Suriname that is currently built.

Small to Medium Enterprises (SME's)

Next to LME's Suriname has space in every industry for services and exported oriented SMEs. Think of health services, security services, IT, gaming, arts, motorsports, racing, waste processing. There are thousands of SME business opportunities.

Incubators and Accelerators

A vital part of every economy is the setup of incubators and accelerators. The nurture and enable the growth of great new companies and work for people.

Suriname will be supporting the setup of valleys and brain ports in the logistics industry, tourism industry, high tech and agribusiness (agritech).

We will work towards the triple helix where government, education and business collaborate in harmony and integrate with incubators and accelerators abroad.

Business start ups

We invite foreign and domestic entrepreneurs to start up new businesses in areas like clean tech, high tech, ehealth and agritech. There are so many opportunities for new business. Even if the government in the near future would restrict all activity to be sustainable.

Suriname has only about 15000 companies on a population of 590.000 people, in a country with the size of the Indonesian Island of Java, where 120 million people live.

All the Business Opportunities You Need

Suriname has many business opportunities for entrepreneurs to be taken. Here is an example list of them.
Business Opportunities

National Airport

Suriname has one national airport, called the Johan Adolf Pengel International Airport, or Zanderij. The international abbreviation for the airport is PBM.

About 250.000 visitors enter Suriname each year via this airport. The number of daily flights is about 10.

National Sea Port

Suriname has one national Sea Port, called Nieuwe Haven.

More than 300 ships visit this Sea port each year.

Cruise Ships

Are you a tour operator or cruise line company?

Then Suriname has many opportunities for you.

Did you know that in the past 10 years only four cruise ships have visited Suriname, the undisturbed gateway to the Amazon, on their voyage?

After the first journey in 2012, in 2015 the Sea Adventurer visited Suriname again for 1 day with 72 guests as part of a Cruise along Brazil, French Guyana, Suriname, Guyana and Trinidad & Tobago.

In 2015 the MV Minerva visit Paramaribo, with 200 passagiers, for half a day. See photo.

In 2018 the ultra-luxury expedition ship Le Champlain from the French cruise company Ponant, with 184 passengers on board, visited the capital Paramaribo during a 10-day 'Sailing the Orinoco' cruise from Cayenne (French Guiana) to Fort-de-France in Martinique.

In 2020 cruise ship Amadea of the German Phoenix Reisen is expected to visit Paramaribo.

The tourism sector in Suriname would like to see 1 cruise ship dock in Suriname every month.

Do you want to know more about this business opportunity? Then contact DISCOVER SURINAME or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Are you interested in becoming a Sustainable Entrepreneur in Suriname or the Amazon?

For more information on becoming an entrepreneur in Suriname, contact us via the contact details on this page, or contact FDI BIBIS or the department of trade directly:

Important Contacts for Entrepreneurs

Investors who consider investing in Suriname are required to send a signed letter to FDI BIBIS with their clear intentions and objectives. Next, a due dilligence will be undertaken.