Guest of Honour Your Excellency Amani Abeid Karume, President of the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar,Minister of Education, Culture and Sports Haroun Ali Suleiman,Regional Commissioner and representatives of Regional and District Authorities,Dear Friends and Invited GuestsSalaam Aleikum!It is a very great privilege for me and my wife – who is also our Senior Programme Officer for Education – to have been invited to this ceremony marking the official opening of the new school building in this village. It makes me think that time is really flying and that it is possible after all to push ahead and achieve rapid and positive results in the field of international development cooperation. I thought it was only yesterday that we took the decision to provide emergency funding for the completion of new classrooms in Zanzibar, or – to be more precise – for the roofing and equipment of these new classrooms. But here we are together on this day of joy and celebration. I wish to thank the community for a job very well done during a short period of time. This does not come as a big surprise to me: the experience I have in Tanzania and in Zanzibar is that people and communities are very quick and eager to respond in a concrete and positive manner when they are given the chance, the means and the opportunity to engage in development work. Often it is us on the Government or on the donor side who are not acting fast or decisively enough. But in this case I feel there was a good meeting of minds and a timely response on all sides.I am very proud of the decisions we took some 9-10 months ago. In a situation when many people were still sitting on the fence, hesitating whether there was time to move and whether the Mwafaka was really on, we – together – showed the way by emphasizing the need for development and for positive action. What we see here today should make us even more determined and inspired to push ahead and to intensify our ongoing development cooperation. We should also add on to the emergency phase by looking for bold action in a more long-term perspective. On the Swedish side we are ready to both continue with the emergency operation regarding classroom construction and to take new decisions on longer-term support for education in Zanzibar. Further discussions regarding such support will soon take place, involving also other donor countries, and we have a lot of trust and confidence in the work now being done by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports. We are also looking forward to discuss these and other development issues at the forthcoming Round Table meeting which will take place later on this month.It is a huge difference between my first visit to Zanzibar some 4 years ago and now. Then the atmosphere was tense and difficult, particularly here in Pemba. No real development was ongoing or visible on the Islands. Now we can witness another and more positive situation: intense development activities going on in various areas and sectors; good cooperation within the overall framework of the Mwafaka and a very keen President of Zanzibar making regular visits – also to Pemba – showing concern and spearheading the development agenda. Peace, stability and development are gaining ground all the time.I would like to use this occasion to pay tribute – once again – to CCM and CUF for the homegrown Mwafaka achievement, which has received such strong support from all of us in the international community. The Mwafaka process will soon be tested in connection with the forthcoming by-elections in May with Pemba standing out as a special and particularly interesting case. We are many who hope that this unique process will stand the test and also hold until the next general elections in 2005. The leadership of CCM and CUF should deal very firmly with those who may try to frustrate the Mwafaka through destructive actions. Many of us have already discovered that Zanzibar as a whole is a heaven as a tourism destination. The future potential for increased tourism is enormous. For this reason alone all Zanzibaris have a very strong interest to stand up united to defend peace and stability and progress through development – especially during these troublesome times when the international climate is not so good and when we are all subjected to various terrorist threats. You should stand up together and defend your islands and your integrity, putting internal politics behind for the sake of national interests – and we in the international community should support you as much as we can, not least through intensified development cooperation. When it comes to these terrorist threats let me add what I tried to convey in February when we were launching the Pemba Press Club in Chake Chake. I urge all media practitioners in Zanzibar to stick to professional and objective reporting, especially now when false rumours seem to be quite common. For instance, there seem to have been allusions by some people that "the Europeans and the opposition" are cooperating in some kind of tacit plot to prevent tourists from coming to Zanzibar, something which of course is not true. If anything, Sweden and other European nations, as well as many other international partners, are presently doing their level best to intensify cooperation with Zanzibar and we are all keen to see a vibrant tourism sector develop on the islands. This is being done as a positive response to the serious development-oriented approach that the Government of Zanzibar is now pursuing under the leadership of President Karume. -- We have not issued new directives telling Swedes not to go to Zanzibar. What we are doing, however – which is a very normal thing under the circumstances – is to tell our nationals to exercise caution, to be vigilant and not to ignore any kind of threat of this nature. Master of Ceremony, Dear Friends,Let me conclude by again warmly thanking the people in this comunity for the impressive achievements made and for establishing such a possitive example to all of us. Education is the key to everyhing – let us never forget that. And if it can be pursued within the framework of a progressive spirit of community mobilization there are good reasons to have high hopes for the future.A santeni sana. Shukrani kubwa.