(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The Honourable Samuel Hinds, Prime Minister of Guyana on Wednesday launched the Caribbean Aviation Safety and Security Oversight System (CASSOS) at the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat in Georgetown, Guyana, and challenged the new Community Institution to set the bar for towards closer unity within the Region. In his address to launch CASSOS, the Prime Minister who is currently acting as Guyana’s President, underscored the Region’s commitment to meeting international aviation standards and the importance of aviation to the Caribbean. “CASSOS is a good early step and there are many more steps to be taken,” Mr. Hinds said, and expressed the hope that as the organization moved from strength to strength, non-CARICOM members would see the importance of joining CASSOS. He urged the organization to lead the way in the merging of sovereignties was implied in the Community’s move towards the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME). CASSOS, which replaces the more informal arrangement of the Regional Aviation Safety Oversight System (RASOS), provides the platform for establishing a Regional Civil Aviation Authority. Its primary objectives are to: assist States Parties in meeting their obligations as contracting States to the Chicago Convention by achieving and maintaining full compliance with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) standards and recommended practices facilitate and promote the development and harmonization of civil aviation regulations, standards, practices and procedures amongst its States Parties consistent with the Annexes to the Chicago Convention The Board of CASSOS will report annually to COTED which may provide general or specific policy directions. In remarks at the ceremony, His Excellency Edwin Carrington, Secretary-General of CARICOM, described the launch as a “significant milestone” in the ongoing process of development of civil aviation in the Community. The importance of transportation - in particular air transportation- and securitry to the Community, the Secretary-General said, could not be overstated, especially within the context of the co-mingling of peoples. “…separated as our countries are by the sea, the building and maintenance of our Community is to a large extent dependent on our ability to efficiently move our people and our goods among the Member States and Associate Members,” the Secretary-General said. The new entity, he noted, would have also an important impact on cost savings by Member States through the pooling of technical and other resources. Other speakers at the historic ceremony were Mr. Anthony Archer, Director, Civil Aviation, Barbados and Outgoing Acting Chairman of RASOS; Ms. Loretta Martin, ICAO Regional Director, North American, Central American and Caribbean Office, Mexico; Ms. Maria DiPasquantonio, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Senior Representative for Canada and the Caribbean; and Mr. Mtesigwa Maugo, Executive Director, East African Community (EAC) Civil Aviation Safety and Security Oversight Agency.