(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Outgoing CARICOM Chairman and President of the Republic of Suriname, HE Desiré Delano Bouterse has reiterated the call for change within the Caribbean Community.

In delivering his final charge as CARICOM Chairman at the 33rd Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government, in Saint Lucia on Wednesday, the President, who held that Chair for the past six months, insisted that the Community had to change the way it viewed itself and the way in which Member States interacted with each other; dispense with old practices; leverage this season of global transformation and unite in “unwavering solidarity and determination” as the driving force of the Community.

President Bouterse noted that inter-regional cooperation was being tested by accelerating developments within the region. He pointed to the Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development and expressed dissatisfaction with the outcomes. He was adamant that for the sake of its own development, the Region had to take measures to stave off potential threats to its sustainability. Innovation and creativeness, he explained, were the tools that “we need to use in order to gear our efforts towards the potentials which we possess as a Community.”

“We have to focus on our natural resources, particularly minerals, water, fertile soil, our geographical favorable position and a well educated population,” the outgoing CARICOM Chairman asserted.

The Suriname President also pointed to recent international summits in which he stated that the Community was “heavily challenged” but “acted as a monolithic bloc, by vehemently rejecting the strategy to divide and rule, which in the past has been applied on so many occasions.”

“We have to continue on this same path because it is the only way to free ourselves from unwanted interference that only serves interests contrary to ours,” the outgoing Chairman charged.

“Unity and solidarity are the real corner stones towards our success,” he added.

He also mentioned the 33-member Community of Latin America and Caribbean States (CELAC) which he stated was “a new and very important organization in the region, charged with the meaningful task of creating a strong cooperation mechanism for the countries of the Western hemisphere.” He added that CARICOM’s interest and participation in this new organization was driven by the need to safeguard the interests of their citizens.

In expressing satisfaction with his stint as CARICOM chairman, President Bouterse singled out several highlights of his tenure, which include: the launch of the Regional Sports Academy in Suriname in March; the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in February, which signaled the Region’s commitment to shoulder the burden of Haiti’s reconstruction process; the creation of the framework in March for the establishment of CARICOM Enterprises; the CARICOM-Mexico Summit held in Barbados in May and the CARICOM-UNASUR High Level Youth Exchange in Suriname in June.

With this, President Bouterse thanked the CARICOM Secretariat, the CARICOM Secretary-General Irwin LaRocque and the Members of the Bureau of Heads of Government for their positive contributions to the success of his tenure; and charged the entire Caribbean Community “to continue to have faith in their organization in its strive to realize prosperity and wellbeing and maintain long-lasting peace for all.”