During budget deliberations held in Suriname’s National Assembly, Minister Stephen Tsang of the country’s Ministry of Public Works and Spatial Planning (OWRO) has announced a landmark, symbolically charged infrastructure target: by the 170th anniversary of the founding of Suriname’s public works service, the department will complete paving work for a minimum of 170 unpaved sand roads across the nation.
Tsang emphasized that targeted upgrades to national infrastructure sit at the core of his ministry’s current policy agenda, with particular focus placed on residential communities where residents regularly face impassable sand roads, widespread flooding, and limited access to essential services during rainy seasons. “As a symbolic milestone tied to our department’s legacy, we have set the goal of paving at least 170 roads in time for our 170th anniversary,” the minister told the assembly.
The anniversary target forms one key component of a broader long-term strategy to overhaul and expand Suriname’s national road network. Currently, the country counts roughly 5,000 kilometers of public roads, combining both paved and unpaved routes, with a large share of that network classified as being in fair to poor condition, according to ministry data. Beyond the immediate 170-road target, Tsang outlined the government’s broader ambition to systematically reduce the number of unpaved sand roads across the country. “Our end goal is to see every sand road in Suriname paved,” he stated.
At the same time, Minister Tsang openly acknowledged the enormous scale of the challenge ahead. The ministry estimates that the total backlog of required road maintenance and rehabilitation work amounts to tens of billions of Surinamese dollars, and current available public funding is only sufficient to address a small fraction of this unmet need. Regardless of the funding constraints, the department has committed to continuing targeted investments in both major arterial highways and local residential streets in the coming years, pursuing a mixed approach that combines rehabilitation of existing paved roads with new paving projects in areas still only accessible via unpaved routes.
OWRO officials note that road upgrades deliver far more benefits than improved transportation alone. Paved roads directly boost quality of life for local communities, improve access to schools, healthcare facilities and commercial hubs, and catalyze inclusive economic development in underserved residential areas. Additionally, the ministry projects that upgraded infrastructure will cut vehicle maintenance costs for ordinary residents, while also allowing emergency response services to reach remote, outlying neighborhoods faster and more safely.
As one of Suriname’s oldest continuously operating government institutions, the approaching 170th anniversary of the public works service represents a natural moment to deliver tangible, visible improvements to the Surinamese public, Tsang explained. Whether the 170-road target will be met on schedule will depend in large part on the fiscal space the ministry is allocated in coming national budgets, but the minister reaffirmed that the broader ambition remains unchanged: to steadily increase the share of paved roads and systematically reduce the number of unpaved sand routes across Suriname.