UN General Assembly
1993

Community of the Great Lakes Countries, the Kagera River Basin Organization and the Preferential Trade Area, with a view to the gradual establishment of a free-trade zone. The Government of Burundi will spare no effort to spark subregional cooperation aimed at increased well-being for our peoples. It is high time that we in the third world engaged in some self-examination. It is high time that we grew out of looking only outwards. We must explore our own capacity for self-development: development directed at ourselves and maintained by ourselves. We must learn to plan and manage better. Above all, we must learn to work better, to work profitably: all of us, from the humblest peasant to the loftiest dignitary. Africa is overflowing with wasted or unexploited potential. We must contemplate a development for ourselves, a development adapted to our needs and making use of our assets. International solidarity can be effective only in the radically new context where we take responsibility for ourselves and where exchanges are mutually advantageous. The world is radically changing. Peoples aspire to