– seen as a way of forging greater ties
THE Surinamese government has promised to include the University of Guyana (UG) Tain, Berbice Campus in its programme of meaningful student and faculty exchanges.
This promise came from the Surinamese Minister of Finance, Woonie Bhoedoe, who joined her country’s President Desi Bouterse, for an interactive session with students of the campus during a one day visit on Saturday last.
Minister Bhoedoe told students that there is already a programme of exchange existing between Suriname and UG but that it is operating at the Turkeyen campus.
“I’m going to make sure that we extend that programme to the Berbice campus because it’s much closer,” Minister Bhoedoe said, in response to a student who asked about the prospects of student and faculty exchanges between the two countries.
President Bharrat Jagdeo and his Suriname counterpart, Bouterse, arrived in Guyana on Saturday last, at the Moleson Creek ferry terminal, after wrapping up their third meeting in about two months and further signalling their firm intention to deepen ties between the two neighbours, including bridging the border Corentyne River.
They announced that the two governments are seeking Chinese investment to build a bridge across the river and said the project was advanced during President Jagdeo’s visit to Nickerie from Friday where he and Bouterse and top cabinet ministers from the two sides continued cooperation talks.
In a clear signal of their desire to work together, the two Presidents travelled on the Canaiwaima ferry across the Corentyne River to Moleson Creek, from where they motored to scheduled visits on the Corentyne Coast.
During their visit to the Tain campus of the University of Guyana where they met and answered questions from students, the Guyanese Head of State said that on the occasion of President Bouterse’s visit, it was important that he met with the nation’s youth, ‘on whose shoulders rest the future.’
“It is important that you share the vision of where our country is going and the vision that we have of developing stronger ties between Guyana and Suriname. If your counterparts, people like you in universities in Suriname share the same view, it makes the task of bringing our countries closer together sustainable and easier,” President Jagdeo said.
Tain, UG’s second campus, was opened in November 2000, offering two-year undergraduate Certificate programmes in Education, Diploma programmes in Accountancy, Marketing, Public Management, Social Work, English and History, and the Post-graduate Diploma in Education.
For the 2001-2002 academic year, the following programmes were added: Degree in Agriculture, Associate Degree in General Science, with options in Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics and Physics, and a Diploma in Computer Science. The current student population is 350.
The institution is the fulfillment of a promise made decades ago by the People’s Progressive Party (PPP/C) administration to residents of Berbice in its bid to promote fairness and equity in the distribution of resources across the country.
The Head of State reminded the students that the campus was established after a period of much contention for land acquisition, opposition forces in Parliament and the decision whether to make it independent or a subsidiary campus.
In his address at the campus, President Bouterse told the students, the majority of which are youths that young people are at the centre of the new pathway which Suriname has adopted.
With 67 percent of Surinamese population being youth, President Bouterse said investment in this group is the most important. He made reference to a youth movement in his country which he considered the largest in the Caribbean.
“Today, I’m seeing a lot of young faces looking up at me and I want to take this opportunity to ask you to take part in this new path Suriname has taken together with Guyana,” President Bouterse said.
Since his ascension to office, President Bouterse and the Guyanese Head of State have had personal engagements on three occasions, a good symbol of advancing integration according to the Surinamese President.
Strengthening ties between Guyana and Suriname is the desire of both leaders, according to President Jagdeo who also highlighted the necessity of doing so in today’s economic and political reality.
The President said that Guyana and Suriname are the only two countries in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) that share a common land border as all the others are separated by the sea. As such, “we have an obligation in a microcosm to accelerate what could happen at the CARICOM level.”
Already strides have been made in terms of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), free movement of people, creation of bigger market spaces and common foreign policies among others.
In the case of Guyana and Suriname, President Jagdeo said that, “we can move this forward faster and therefore this is why I appreciate so much, the vision of the Surinamese President.” (GINA)