 Good morning all. Can you please stand with me as we invite Mr. Ricky Quinland, the deputy putman and secretary within the Ministry of Home Affairs, as he invites the presence of the Almighty in our midst. Morning everyone. Can we all sign ourselves for those who need to? In the name of the Father, the Son of the Holy Spirit. Heavenly Father, we thank you for bringing us all here today. In good health, safe, free from any form of injury or accident. Lord, we ask that you bless our ceremony, bless everyone here, bless the hands of all those who are working tirelessly to see this launch take place today. Heavenly Father, we pray you, Lord God, that may you send forth your Holy Spirit upon us, guide us, help us to respect one another. In Jesus' name, we humbly pray. Amen. If you don't mind remaining on your feet, it's now time for the national anthem. Thank you. You may be seated. Minister with responsibility for public service, home affairs, labor and gender affairs, Honorable Dr. Virginia Albert Poyotte, permanent secretary within the Department of Home Affairs, permanent secretary within the Ministry of External Affairs, Commissioner of Police, Mr. Milton Daisy, Mr. Rami Khalil, the Director of Business Development, invited guests, members of the media, rank and file of the Royal Cilicia Police Force. Good morning. We are here for the official launch of St. Lucia's Electronic Passport Program. This is a much anticipated activity and I do not wish to speak on something there are persons who are far more qualified to speak on here in our meets. And that being said, I would like to call on the Commissioner of Police, Milton Daisy to the podium for welcome remarks. Mr. Daisy. Yes, good morning all. Protocol having been established, I would like to in the interest of time this morning move straight into my brief remarks. However, I it would be remiss of me if I don't recognize the presence of Dr. Virginia Albert Poyotte, the Minister for Home Affairs, the Public Service, Gender Affairs and Labor, who I know have been working tirelessly to ensure that our new system is operational. Okay, also I would like to recognize Mr. Rami Khalil, who is our the Director for Business Development who also had to ensure that this was successful. It gives me a sense of elation to welcome you to this momentous occasion as we seek to not only embark on the technological evolution of facilitating the movement of persons, but also to thrust our nation forward into what can only be a very promising future. The ePassport is said to be the next generation of travel documents and presents several advantages to holders. The new system promises increased security features to include protection against identity fraud through the use of increased biometric features and many more unique means of ensuring authenticity. The transition to this system will undoubtedly allow Saint Lucia to enhance its border management effort in keeping with recommendations by the International Civil Aviation Organization, ICAO. With the advancements of technology available to criminal elements, the old operating system would inevitably be faced with major security threats. As copying the security features become increasingly easier with the passage of time. As commander of the agency task with ensuring that such breaches do not compromise the integrity of the immigration process, I am pleased that today's undertaking will see this risk being mitigated and offer a higher level of protection for our travel documents and transactions. We have observed the regional and international trend of shifting to the use of ePassports and the move by us will allow access to an integrated system that can only mean greater advances in our efforts to maintain secure borders as we facilitate the free movement of people which we are seeing emerging globally as the engines for economy. Without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, I say welcome to this much anticipated event. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner. I'd now like to call on none other than Mr Lucia Slick, our immigration expert, who will provide us with the project overview. Mr. Slick. Good morning, everybody. Minister, please allow me to adopt the protocol already established. Minister, thank you. You need to seek permission first. Ladies and gentlemen, the Commissioner outlined a lot of the issues and what we went through, but it must be noted that soon after we went into the machine readable passport in 2007, the dialogue or discussion had really started to go into ePassport. There were numerous presentations from CDN on the matter itself. A lot of things happened and it didn't take place. But in the last two and a half years, it was reinvigorated with the project. And we had discussions with many other entities who supply ePassports as well. But having had this relationship with CBN, the only plausible thing to do was go ahead with CBN. So here we are two and a half years later, we have deployed the new system. It is up and running. All the hardware, all the software in the office has changed. There are few changes persons will see in coming forward to apply for new passports. But it wasn't easy. The immigration staff raised a lot of the pressure during that move. And in going forward, the task will not be as easy as it is now. But the good thing to say about it, we have a unique ePassport with loads of solution features in it. The latest bit of security measures, security features on the passport itself. That will only be determined when persons whose passports have expired have gotten the new ones. With no further due, we have launched the new ePassport. And moving forward, we can see our rankings worldwide where it pertains to passports go up. The only ways up in that regard. With that, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Lake. I think after that level of enthusiasm, all of us who have not applied for a new passport, even if our old ones don't expire within the next six months, will be applying. I know I'm a little excited just to see those security features that Mr. Lake mentioned. So thank you, Mr. Lake. I will not see it. Well, that's unfortunate, but I'm excited that whatever is in there will afford us all of the protections that both Mr. Lake and Mr. Daisy have referenced. It's now time for us to call on Mr. Rami Khalil, the Director of Business Development, a gentleman who has been an integral part of this process. So I will allow him now to address you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. CBN is proud to be a trusted partner of the Government of St. Lucia. Dating back to its first passport implementation 2006-2007, we've seen our relationship continue to grow, flourish, and remain stable in supporting the Government's critical identity infrastructure. Through close collaboration with the Ministry of Home Affairs, we're proud to support the Government now to finally introduce its new e-Passport, joining more than 140 countries around the world who have adopted this more secure and trusted form of travel. The new e-Passport employs modern security design techniques, represents significant enhancement to the overall security of St. Lucia's current machine-readable book. The new e-Passport contains the latest overt and covert security features that are seamlessly integrated throughout the book. This new e-Passport also contains a microchip embedded in the rear cover of the booklet. It is used to digitally authenticate the passport holder's identity and adheres to the highest international travel standards. This use of biometric ensures the validation of one's identity and moreover helps combat identity fraud around the globe. We look forward to a continued partnership with the Government of St. Lucia. We're pleased to continue to offer leading-edge solutions to support the Government. This new e-Passport will be a source of national pride now and into the future. Lastly, I want to commend the Department of Home Affairs, the Royal St. Lucia Police Force, and CBN's project team who have been working tirelessly day and night in close collaboration over the past few weeks to ensure a seamless transition from the current system to the new system launching today. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Khalil. It is now time for us to hear from our Minister. The Minister of Responsibility for quite a few things, public service, home affairs, labour and gender affairs. I don't know how she does it but she does. It's none other than Honourable Dr. Virginia Albert-Poyot. Ma'am? First of all, let me say good morning to all and let me recognize the head table in the persons of the Labour Commissioner, Mr. Milton Daisy. Hello. I'm Police Commissioner. So he has to take care of the interests of workers to serve. He just did. The Commissioner of Police, Mr. Milton Daisy, Mr. Dwight MacManus, General Manager. Well, no, he's he was supposed to join us today but he has some flight problems but we have Mr. Rami Kahali. He is the Director of Business Development of the Canadian Bank in Newt. Mr. Lucius Leek who is coined as our immigration expert. We have Assistant Commissioner Acting Deputy Commissioner. Members representing the different departments of home affairs. We have in our midst the Director for Borderly Correctional Facility. We have the Director for Publishing and Parole. We have the Permanent Secretary Acting in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I recognize the presence of the Permanent Secretary in the Department of Home Affairs, Dr. Elizabeth Bailey. The Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Department of Home Affairs. We have the Administrative Officer in the Police Department and members of the Royal St. Lucia Police Force, other special invited guests, the media. Today is a big day for us. As articulated earlier by our previous speakers, we understand why it is important that we have upgraded our system to this electronic passport. So I can safely say today is out with the old and in with the new. But we know that change is not an easy task. We ask for change. We call for change. We advocate for change. But when change comes, there is a lot of resistance to change. And this is what we have to address at this time in terms of how our St. Lucia public, the people of St. Lucia, will receive the presence and use of an electronic passport. And I'm very pleased that the benefits of this exercise was well articulated by the experts in the field. The challenge we have on our hands right now is one where the question out there is the cost of the passport. And I have been on every talk show, every media house to defend that because the cost of the passport is not the persons who administer the use of the passport who have to face the challenge. It's the government of St. Lucia who has to find the money to fill in that bill. And I want to tell you that it is not a cheap exercise. And I understand why it is not a cheap exercise because security of our country is of critical importance. And many people see security or they see crime and safety in the area of, these days they talk a lot about guns, but the high sophisticated crime that has nothing to do with guns. It has nothing to do with physical abuse. But if we do not control our borders, we are not safe. And we have to control our borders in terms of who comes in and who goes out. And this passport is one way of assisting this government, the people of St. Lucia, to be in a safer environment. So I need to congratulate the company, the Canadian bank note that has come up with this very technical and sophisticated instrument to allow persons to enter and exit our country in a safe manner and to protect our people. I need to commend the Department of Home Affairs for having worked tirelessly to get this process going for us to see and realize the benefit of this instrument. I need to congratulate the police force, especially the Immigration Department, and Ms. Lucia Selik, who has worked with them. And we are actually benefiting the sweat and hard work of these people. And I think we need to put our hands together to commend their efforts. So hard to explain to the St. Lucia public what the Canadian bank note is all about. Because they ask, what is this company about? How can we trust this company? And luckily, Ms. Director, I had to tell them this is the same company that produces the currencies that we have. So if they trust the dollars and the hundred dollars and the fifty dollars, they should trust whatever is in the passport. Because if we do not have security measures, it means that people could just produce thousands of our passports and work around with it. And this will compromise the integrity of our passport. It will compromise our security. And countries around us, regionally and internationally, would not trust that document as a legal document for travel. I also had to defend the duration of the passport, why not ten years rather than five years? And I had to tell them the longer we keep an old instrument, the more useless it becomes. And therefore, the shorter the period, you have an opportunity. If in the event that the security measures are compromised, you have an opportunity to make the adjustment to keep the country safe. And for how many years we have been having five-year passports. But people are complaining that why not ten years? Because of the increasing prices. And they ask, why this exorbitant increase? And I had to tell them that the passport that costs eighty dollars, it should have been a hundred and fifty dollars many years ago. But government decided to subsidize the passport. And at this point, the nature of the passports that we have, it is one that requires a very sophisticated instrument which carries that cost with it. And even with that cost, government still has to subsidize, because we will not be able to raise the amount of money to begin to pay off the passport. There is the issue of the features. In fact, people even wanted to know what are the security features. How can you explain security features? It's no longer secure. So we have to build that what we call public confidence in the instrument. And let us, I think, we as representatives of the government, the public officers who are involved in the process, we have to be out there to mobilize support for this instrument. And let people develop the confidence in that process. I am very pleased that, in fact, when I had to defend the cost of the passport, not just about government, has to raise that. I said the passport will cost two hundred and fifty dollars. That works out to fifty dollars a year. And it works out to less than four dollars a month. And it works out to about thirteen cents a day. So I had, because people were arguing that how will the poor man be able to purchase a passport at this cost? And I asked somebody from my constituency, because we are doing some home repairs to persons who are vulnerable and very needy. And I asked the person, what is it these people have been saying about the cost of the passport? And the gentleman told me, well, what they told him is that they cannot even get the extra twenty-five cents to put on the transport to go to castries. If you think it's passport, they will think of. So I'm telling you there are, for example, hundreds of people who come to my constituency office, they WhatsApp me, they call me, and they have never asked me why the passport is so expensive. What they ask me is they need a job. They ask me for medical assistance. They ask me for support for the children. They ask me for food. Because the persons we define as vulnerable and needy, these are the priorities for them. And the persons who would have to travel, we know that these are persons who would be able to afford the passport. Because you cannot travel if you do not pay your FA or your boat ride wherever you are living, and it did not cost just two hundred and fifty dollars. So these are the kind of conversations we need to have with our solution population, so that they understand and they begin to appreciate that measure undertaken by the government to ensure that we keep them safe in this country. So today, I'm very pleased that we mark the launching of the passports, and I cannot wait to have my electronic passport. Thank you very much. Thank you so much, Madam Minister. Commissioner, I believe the Minister believed that you could handle as many portfolios as she has, so that is why she called you the Labour Minister. She was just adding to your portfolio. Minister, thank you so much for clarifying quite a few contentious points. I would now like to call on our Acting Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mrs. Crusita Descats-Pelius, for the vote of thanks. Minister of Home Affairs, Public Service, Gender Affairs, Labour, Honourable Dr. Virginia Boyot, Permanent Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs, Dr. Bailey, Commissioner of Police, Mr. Milton D. Z. That's a long list there. DPS, Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Mr. Quinlan, Mr. Rami Khalil, Director of Carder Bank Note, Admit Officer, Mrs. Cota, Executive Officers, Director of Bodily Cultural Athletes Facility, invited guests, immigration officials, media, good morning. Today I'm indeed proud as a St. Lucia also to witness the launching of the e-Passport. I'm indeed proud also to soon be the holder of an electronic passport. Oh, sorry, and Mr. Leek, immigration expert, I'm sorry. A travel document which has met the highest standard of security as required by International Civil Aviation Organization. In March 2007, when we as a nation changed our passports from non-machine-readable to machine-readable passports, this was a great step taken by the government of the state who demonstrated that they had head to regulations of International Civil Aviation Organization, complying to the laws as it relates to migration on an international level. All non-machine-readable passports were withdrawn by November 2015 as a requirement of the International Civil Aviation Organization. It was indeed a commitment to securing the travel documents, which was a concern by law enforcement as the criminals were at liberty because the travel document, the passport at the time, was easily compromised because of the poor quality it was at the time. It was the intention then to further increase the security features of the passport at a later date in the future to electronic passport. It is indeed with gratitude that the leaders of the state have seen it fit to commit to this reality. St Lucia is one of the few states where the police department is responsible for the movement of persons, the processing of travel documents, the prosecution and the rest of persons who have breached the immigration laws to ensure the security of the borders and the issuance of travel documents. Today we are indeed happy as the launching of an e-passport will assist in making our function easier as it makes it difficult for criminals to compromise our passport. As once travel documents is enhanced, it also ensures the upgrade of a border management system as well. One can't upgrade the travel document in the absence of the upgrade of the border management system. This is ensuring that the work at the borders will be indeed easier. With the increase in transnational crime, an effective border management system is the way to go as it relates to mobility and the security of states. Migration offers potential for economic growth and social development and the innovation migration brings also heads of states have a legitimate interest in safeguarding national security and fighting transnational crimes such as human trafficking, smuggling of migrants, terrorism and trafficking of illegal firearms. Governments must facilitate movements of people and goods and maintain secure borders and good border management system deals with border management information system, identity management, humanitarian management and integrated border management. When governments are concerned about the implication of an effective system, they invest in effective border management system and enhancing capabilities in terms of migration management, structures and procedures. Good secure passport, good border management helps in cross-border management and helps in the maintenance of national security as we have heard before by the speakers before me. On behalf of the commissioner of police and the executive of the Royal St Lucia Police Force, let me express our gratitude to the governments of the state present and past for the commitment in ensuring this day become a reality. The staff of the Ministry of Home Affairs and National Security for the hard work, the directors of the bank note, the various the commissioner of police and of course the immigration officers and the staff of the Royal St Lucia Police Force, the various stakeholders who participated in meetings, discussions, all it took in making this day a reality. All who have worked in one way or the other who have made this day a reality, I sincerely thank you. Let me assure you that we have not seen the numbers of passport being compromised as we saw in the past up to 2006. We look forward to a continuation of this trend as we assure it will remain a thing of the past. We continue to remain vigilant at the borders as we execute our duties and ensure the security of passengers and the security of our passport and the security of our nation. I thank you. Thank you, Madam Deputy. We have now come to the end of this ceremony. I would like to reiterate our gratitude to everybody who made this possible, particularly our immigration officers who have worked tirelessly day and night 24 hour shifts to make this possible and to everybody at the head table, those behind the scenes as well. Thank you so much. Thank you to everybody for coming. There are refreshments that will be served later on and you will be serenaded by a gentleman from the Royal Police Forces Band. Thank you all. Members of the media, thank you for coming. This is the end of the ceremony.