Press release 90/2001
(4 July 2001)

In the Caribbean we see the future rushing at us as the high, to our eyes, impenetrable wall of the tidal wave bearing many developments under beautiful acronyms such as: WTO, FTAA and CSME: the Caribbean Single Market and Economy.

We, the leaders of the Caribbean bear the responsibility for not letting our nations go down in this tidal wave, for not letting our countries become isolated and so turning them into the great losers in these sparkling developments of our time. In this development we see donor countries and development banks coming to our help with financing facilities that are either donations or low-interest loans. New treaties such as the Cotonou Partnership Agreement, with its New Trade Arrangement, open opportunities towards joint efforts of donor- and receiving countries in combating poverty in our sub-region and in the rest of the ACP and other developing countries.

The new issues that play an important role in this are not only dealing with commercial rules but are also focusing on our internal governmental structures. This relates to conditions we as democratic civilized peoples eagerly impose upon ourselves, but it sometimes also involves procedures we have to watch carefully for reasons of protecting our sovereignty With reference to this it is highly recommended that a continuous structural analysis should be made of the relation between our countries on one hand and the donor countries and international financial institutes on the other.

In all the efforts we make with respect to designing and implementing formal facilities that have to give shape to our Caribbean sub-region , it is important to pay sufficient attention to the most important factor of developing our community, that is the human factor: our youth, our women and the men of the Caribbean. In the next half year we will evaluate the state of affairs in our countries to get a picture of the extent to which we are in really involving the human factor in our pursuit of the Caribbean unity.

This unity, economic, political, cultural logistic, is our only possibility to brace ourselves in our encounter, sometimes confrontation, with the interests of other, usually very strong, blocks dominating our opportunities.

This unity can only be established when all the ideals and goals of the CARICOM become rooted and embedded in the Caribbean people and their organizations.

Governments come and governments go. We run the risk of letting the issues we discuss become part of this to-and-fro movement if they are not widely supported in the community.

He who has dedicated himself to cooperate with civil society, particularly business community, labour movement and other nongovernmental organizations, also knows the risks of this cooperation . NGO's can be used as a steppingstone by foreigners, foreign nations, regional and international organizations of all kinds to get access to national governmental structures or even in our organization, the Caricom and so affecting our national sovereignty. NGO's can form a bridge for politically opponent nationals in realizing their political aspirations. These nationals might even be supported with means and facilities made available to them by the formal, political structure.

However, we must not be deterred by what I describe as the natural side effects of the process of involving civil society, for it is this civil society that carries in it the possibility of generating the social basis for all the goals we are aiming at: our economic goal, our social goals, amongst which a prolonged struggle against poverty, our educational goals, our sport and cultural experiences and our religious persuasion. They all have to be embodied in the human factor.

We therefore have no other choice then putting everything we have into the task of activating and involving civil society in the realization of our developmental goals. The human factor is the source for utilizing the developmental facilities in the world around us. The human factor is the aim of our efforts. Hence it is the human factor too that we need in bringing closer the realization of our goals.

We are in the fortunate position that regionally as well as internationally ample attention is paid already to the development of the human factor.  Menaces to our species, such as HIV/AIDS are fought against by the UN and PAHO/WHO. But there are positively oriented programs such as the Plan of Action of the fourth World Conference on Women and the Action Plan to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which we people of the Caribbean can pay full attention. In our own sub-region we have made a considerable step forward in achieving quality mechanisms for education.

In conclusion I wish to ask all of you your attention for a good preparation for our coming Forward Together Conference which have to bring closer to each other governmental and nongovernmental efforts in pursuit of our development goals.

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen

Suriname has had the honour and pleasure to welcome the Chairman of our organization, His Excellency, Prime Minister of Barbados, Rt. Honorable Owen Arthur, accompanied by the Secretary General Edwin Carrington and the delegation for a visit purposed to increase the CARICOM awareness of the Surinamese population and to enhance the Surinam awareness of CARICOM.

The intensive and pleasant way in which all members of the delegation have given their all and its effect on the Surinamese population have demonstrated that communities can be interested in the Caribbean cause.

Indeed Suriname has come closer to CARICOM: an illustration of the role of the human factor.

I thank you